OCT  I  -i  1920 


V 


Divisioa       ;B  Stt^Co 


The  Story  of  the 
New  Testament 

BY  THOMAS  CARTER,  B.D.,  D.D. 

PROFESSOR     OF     NEW     TESTAMENT     EXE- 
GESIS    IN     VANDERBILT     UNIVERSITY 


Introduction  by  Fitzgerald  S.  Parker,  D.D. 
General  Secretary  of  ike  Epworih  League 


Nashville,  Tenn. 

Dallas,  Tex.;  Richmond,  Va. 

Publishing  House  of  the  M.  E.  Church,  South 

Smith  &  Lamar,  Agents 

1920 


Copyright,  1912  and  1920 

BY 

Smith  &  Lamar 


(Ho     > 
Wilbur  FiskeTillett,  A.M.,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  S.T.D. 


Loyal  Son  of  the  Church  of  the  Father's 
Beloved  Father  in  the  Church  of  the  Sons 


(3) 


Chkistianity  is  from  the  beginning  life,  "and  it  is 
because  this  life  pulsates  through  these  primitive  docu- 
ments that  they  cannot  be  explained  (or  explained 
away)  on  any  hypothesis  of  literary  dependencies. — 
Bernhard  Weiss. 

There  is  something  more  important  than  the  written 
word.  The  Christian  Church  is  more  than  a  book.  Je- 
sus was  more  than  a  word.  Jesus  the  Logos,  the  Word, 
was  the  life,  and  the  Church  is  a  living  society,  a  living 
fellowship.  Christianity  is  an  uninterrupted  life. — Cas- 
par  Rene  Gregory. 
(4) 


PREFACE 

This  little  book,  written  several  years  ago  as  a  series 
of  monthly  studies,  is  now  sent  forth  without  material 
modification.  However,  by  far  the  better  part  of  it,  as 
it  now  appears— namely,  the  "Passages  for  Daily  Read- 
ings" and  the  "Thought  Questions" — is  due  to  the  Gener- 
al Secretary  of  the  Epworth  League. 

I  count  this  study  of  small  value  except  in  so  far  as 
'those  who  follow  it  avail  themselves  of  these  absolutely 
essential  aids.  The  Biblical  material,  which  Dr.  Parker 
has  so  judiciously  selected,  and  the  opportunity  for  intel- 
ligent reaction  in  terms  of  personal  judgment  that  his 
suggestive  questions  afford  will  in  a  large  measure  offset 
the  necessarily  fragmentary  character  of  the  successive 
chapters. 

It  was  thought  inadvisable  to  burden  the  pages  with 
references;  footnotes,  as  a  rule,  distract  even  when  they 
do  not  destroy  interest.  Scholars  will  readily  recognize 
the  footprints  of  the  master  guides,  not  slavishly  but  ap- 
preciatively followed,  I  trust.  For  others  a  partial  bib- 
liography will  be  found  in  the  appendix. 

It  is  the  intention  in  the  near  future  to  issue  a  special 
study  on  the  "Life  and  Letters  of  Paul."  This  will  be 
more  intensive  than  the  general  plan  of  the  present  vol- 
ume permitted.  It  will  be  especially  suitable  for  JBp- 
worth  League  and  Sunday  school  purposes. 

Thomas  Cabteb. 
(5) 


CONTENTS 

Page 

Preface   5 

Introductiox    9 

Chapter 

I.  Introductory:  Why  Have  We  a  New  Testament.  13 
II.  The  Occasioning  Cause  and  the  Practical  Pur- 
pose of  the  New  Testament  26 

III.  The  Letters  to  Thessalonians  and  Galatians. . .  40 

IV.  The   Epistles   to   the   Corinthians   and   to   the 

Romans    53 

V.  Paul's  Prison  Correspondence  71 

VI.'  Paul's  Pastoral  and  Personal  Correspondence . .  90 

VII.  Two  Catholic  Brothers  107 

VIII.  Peter   and    John:    Large    Lesson    from    Little 

Letters 123 

IX.  Two  Tracts  for  Times  of  Transition:  Hebrews 

and  Revelation  141 

•    X.  The  Fourfold  Gospel:  or,  The  Life  and  Work 

of  Christ  in  the  Flesh 158 

XL  The  Life  and  Work  of  Jesus  in  the  Spirit 176 

XII.  E  Pluribus  Unum:  6t,  The  Rise  of  the  Canon. .  191 

Some  Helpful  Books  204 

(7) 


INTRODUCTION 

For  all  Christians  the  New  Testament  speaks  with  the 
voice  of  authority.  Catholics  may  be  contented  to  take 
its  instructions  at  second  hand  from  the  authoritative 
Church,  but  Protestants  are  taught  themselves  to  go  to 
the  source  and  learn.  In  many  cases  the  difference  is 
theoretical  rather  than  practical.  Our  views  of  moral 
obligation  and  our  religious  beliefs  are  based  upon  what 
we  suppose  the  Bible,  especially  the  New  Testament,  to 
teach,  but  it  must  be  admitted  that  comparatively 
few  are  in  the  habit  of  going  direct  to  the  book  for  the 
material  out  of  which  to  form  their  opinions  upon  the 
most  important  subjects  in  the  world.  Certainly  a 
majority  cannot  claim  the  beatitude  pronounced  by  the 
seer  of  the  Apocalypse:  "Blessed  is  he  that  readeth,  and 
they  that  hear  the  words  of  the  prophecy,  and  keep  the 
things  that  are  written  therein." 

When  it  comes  to  the  nourishment  of  our  devotional 
life  we  do  better;  but  even  here  our  attitude  is  emo- 
tional rather  than  thoughtful,  and  many  persons  are 
more  likely  to  use  the  passages  they  read  as  a  means  of 
reviving  associated  ideas  than  of  ascertaining  what  is 
the  real  meaning  of  the  Word  of  God.  That  is,  we  read 
the  Bible  in  order  to  revive  a  memory,  not  to  gain  a 
fresh  impression.  It  is  no  wonder  that  Bible-reading 
becomes  tiresome  and  is  neglected  by  the  many,  for 
whom  it  is  confessedly  of  supreme  importance.  It  must 
be  made  interesting  if  it  is  to  become  general  and  effec- 
tive. 

The  purpose  of  the  following  pages  is  to  make  the 
New  Testament  interesting  and  inspiring  by  making 
it  intelligible.  The  method  is  historical.  That  is,  so 
to  recall  and  present  the  human  conditions  and  the  di- 
vine movement  of  the  Holy  Spirit  out  of  which  the  New 

(9) 


10  The  Story  of  the  Ncio  Testament 

Testament  came,  and  so  to  illuminate  its  text  by  an  ap- 
preciation of  what  the  authors  of  the  several  letters, 
tracts,  and  records  that  make  up  the  collection  intended 
to  do,  that  the  New  Testament  shall  live  again  for  us 
even  as  the  Life  that  inspired  it  ever  lives. 

The  end  that  the  author  set  before  him  could  be 
achieved  by  no  other  than  a  ripe  scholar  of  varied  and 
exact  knowledge,  to  which  are  added  genuine  enthusi- 
asm for  his  loved  subject  and  true  spiritual  insight,  the 
gift  of  the  "anointing"  that  is  received  by  those  in 
whom  the  Life  "abideth."  Modest  as  it  i^  in  size  and 
lacking  in  the  apparatus  of  critical  works,  this  volume 
would  have  been  impossible  without  a  basis  of  prepara- 
tion in  the  most  accurate  scholarship;  laden  with  the 
mechanism  of  the  same  it  would  have  been  unavailable 
for  our  purposes.  I  am  not  aware  that  another  work 
of  the  same  kind  exists. 

This  volume  is  intended  for  a  reading  course  book  for 
the  Epworth  League.  It  must  serve  the  double  use  of  a 
textbook  and  a  volume  adapted  to  continuous  reading. 
The  happy  combination  has  been  made.  In  the  sum- 
mer conferences  and  assemblies  it  will  be  the  basis  of 
teaching  at  the  Bible  hour.  In  the  local  Chapters  it 
will  be  available  as  a  textbook  or  for  devotional  read- 
ing. 

The  rapid  survey  of  the  entire  New  Testament  field 
that  the  author  has  undertaken  presupposes  on  the  part 
of  the  reader  a  fair  degree  of  acquaintance  with  the  text 
of  the  New  Testament.  However,  lest  the  very  purpose 
of  the  writing — that  those  who  read  may  be  able  to  feel 
the  pulses  of  the  life  of  the  New  Testament  and  under- 
stand its  meaning  for  to-day— be  defeated,  the  entire 
text  should  be  read  again  in  connection  with  the  several 
chapters  following;  during  a  ten  weeks'  course  that 
will  require  very  little  time,  unless  by  comparison  with 
the  habit  of  regarding  the  Bible  as  a  store  from  which 
we  may  take  but  small  provision,  a  sweet  text  or  two 
at  a  reading.  As  nearly  as  possible  each  book  should 
be  read  through  at  a  sitting.    Passages  for  daily  reading 


Introduction  11 

are  prefixed  to  each  chapter,  but  these  cannot  take  the 
place  of  fuller  reading. 

Each  chapter  is  followed  by  a  number  of  questions, 
the  purpose  of  which  is  not  a  complete  review  of  the 
preceding  text,  but  the  provocation  of  thought  upon  the 
lines  that  we  have  been  following  during  the  reading. 
These  questions  may  be  of  especial  service  to  the  indi- 
vidual reader  in  clarifying  and  deepening  the  impres- 
sion made  by  the  study  of  the  text.  For  use  in  group 
study  it  will  usually  be  better  for  the  leader  to  prepare 
questions  adapted  to  the  especial  needs  of  the  class. 

Dr.  Carter's  book  should  have  an  audience  far  wider 
than  the  Epworth  League.  It  is  just  the  thing  for  every 
busy  layman  who  desires  to  become  a  Bible  reader  and 
who  does  not  know  just  where  to  begin  to  get  an  intro- 
duction available  within  the  leisure  he  has  to  devote  to 
it.  It  will  refresh  and  vitalize  the  reading  of  the  saint 
whose  love  lingers  about  familiar  passages,  but  whose 
mind  has  ceased  to  find  the  enlarging  meaning  that  the 
New  Testament  has  for  all  who  will  read  intelligently. 
As  the  basis  of  a  series  of  studies  in  the  books  of  the 
New  Testament  for  adult  classes  in  the  Sunday  school  it 
has  especial  value.  Fitzgerald  S.  Paekee. 

Nashville,  Tenn.,  January,  1920. 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  NEW 
TESTAMENT 


I.    INTRODUCTORY:    WHY  HAVE  WE  A 
NEW  TESTAMENT 


Passages  for  Daily  Readings 

Sunday. — New  Testament  Writings  Classed  with  the 
Sacred  Scriptures.    2  Peter  3:  14-18. 

Monday. — The  Objective  in  the  Writing  of  John's 
Gospel.    John  20:  24-30;  21:  24.  25. 

Tuesday.— The  Interest  That  Led  to  the  Writing  of 
Luke's  Gospel.    Luke  1:1-4;  24:  44-49. 

Wednesday. — A  Connecting  Link  Between  the  Old 
and  the  New.    Matthew  1:  22,  23;  4:  12-16. 

Thursday. — A  New  Voice  of  Authority.  Matthew 
7:  24-28. 

Friday. — A  Circumstance  Out  of  Which  Came  the 
First  New  Testament  Writing.  1  Thessalonians  2:  17- 
3:  10. 

Saturday. — For  the  Preservation  of  the  Apostolic 
Testimony.     2  Peter  1:12-21. 


The  story  we  are  about  to  engage  in  narrating  is  a 
very  long  but  by  no  means  a  tedious  tale.  The  New 
Testament  has  been  in  the  world  for  nearly  nineteen 
centuries.  During  these  long  years  many  things  have 
happened  to  it,  and  many  other  things  have  happened 
through  it.  In  its  ever-developing  life  it  traverses 
many  countries;  it  touches  and  reflects  and  leaves  its 
impress  upon  many  phases  of  civic  life;  it  reveals  and 
purifies  many  sources  of  spiritual  power.  To  tell  this 
story  in  all  its  varied  ramifications  is  impossible  in 
the  time  and  space  allotted.  We  can,  however,  select 
the  salient  features  of  this  narrative  and  by  emphasiz- 
ing these  get  the  main  outline  before  our  minds  and 
so    become    better    acquainted    with    the    volume    as    a 

(13) 


14         The  Story  of  the  New  Testament 

whole,  more  appreciative  of  its  inner  spirit,  and  better 
interpreters  of  its  mission  to  ourselves  and  to  the 
world  at  large.  This  story  has  been  told  many  times 
before  by  those  who  knew  it  far  better  than  any  of  us. 
Nevertheless,  it  still  has  its  thrill  for  all  who  hear  it 
once  again;  and  it  is  with  the  hope  that  its. retelling 
will  afford  information  and  inspiration  to  young  Chris- 
tians throughout  the  Church  that  these  studies,  first 
printed  in  the  Epwortli  Era,  are  republished  in  book 
form.  New  light  and  new  life  are  constantly  breaking 
forth  from  the  Word  of  God.  May  the  oncoming  hosts 
of  our  young  Methodists  catch  the  vision  of  this  new 
light  and  become  more  and  more  partakers  of  this  new 
life! 

To  tell  the  story  of  the  New  Testament  with  anything 
like  fullness  in  the  matter  of  the  principles  involved 
leads  us  at  once  into  five  great  lines  of  approach. 

In  the  first  place,  we  shojild  reckon  with  the  ante- 
cedent cause  or  primary  source  of  the  Book  and  seek 
to  see  clearly  the  Influence  or  Life  that  made  it  pos- 
sible. This  would  necessitate  our  considering  at  least 
in  the  large  the. place  of  Christ  in  the  New  Testament, 
or  the  relation  of  the  incarnate  Word  to  the  written 
Word. 

In  the  second  place,  we  should  consider  the  accidental 
causes  or  the  peculiar  environment  that  made  any  sec- 
tion or  book  of  the  New  Testament  necessary.  There 
are  twenty-seven  of  these  books,  and  each  is  more  or 
less  a  "tract  for  the  time."  It  can  be  fully  understood 
only  on  the  background  of  the  historic  conditions  that 
gave  it  birth;  for  here,  as  elsewhere,  heredity  and  en- 
vironment count  for  much.  And  we  are  beginning  to 
see  that  in  literature,  as  in  life,  we  have  to  reckon  with 
origins  if  we  are  to  reckon  rightly.  So  in  all  our  deal- 
ings with  the  New  Testament  writings  our  fundamental 
guiding  principle  is:  It  shall  be  said  of  this  Book  that 
it  was  born  there.  And  as  we  take  our  seat  by  the 
side  of  each  successive  author  and  read  the  writing 
from  this  standpoint,  there  thus  comes  a  flood  of  light 


Why  Have  We  a  New  Testament  15 

upon  the  page  we  seek  to  understand  which  can  come 
from  no  other  point  of  the  compass. 

In  the  third  place,  we  should  study  the  consolidating 
cause  or  causes  that  found  these  many  isolated  and 
differently  motived  elements  and  forged  them  into  a 
unified  collection  that  should  be  the  authoritative  norm 
for  creed  and  conduct  throughout  the  universal  cath- 
olic Church. 

In  the  fourth  place,  we  should  consider  briefly  at 
least  the  transmitting  cause  or  forces  at  work  from 
the  fourth  to  the  twentieth  century  which  have  made 
it  possible  for  us  to-day  to  read  these  letters  and 
narratives  written  in  a  different  language  for  far  dif- 
ferent minds  and  climes  from  our  own — stripped  of 
their  uncouth  Greek  or  Syriac  form  and  clothed  now 
in  the  beautifully  expressive  English  of  the  Author- 
ized Version,  or  the  more  perfectly  fitting  garb  of  the 
American  Revision,  or  in  the  familiar  homespun  of 
the  Twentieth  Century  translation. 

But  even  with  all  this  our  story  would  be  far  from 
complete;  for  to  complete  the  narrative  we  should  re- 
count the  thrilling  history  of  wUat  the  New  Testament 
Ms  accomplished  and  is  still  accomplishing  among  the 
nations  of  earth  in  the  demolition  of  old  ideals,  the 
abolition  of  superstitious  and  sinful  practices,  and  in 
the  lifting  up  of  loftier  standards  for  the  manhood  and 
womanhood  of  the  race.  This  would  lead  us  into  a  dis- 
cussion of  the  dynamic  principles  of  the  Book;  and  no 
more  fascinating  chapter  could  be  penned  than  that 
which  marshals  before  our  view  the  conquests  of  this 
Book  of  Life  as  it  has  gone  forth  ever  conqlierlng  and 
to  conquer.  (Our  present  studies,  however,  will  not 
touch  the  fourth  and  fifth  phases  at  all.) 

Each  of  these  first  four  fields  opens  up  a  wide  oppor- 
tunity for  investigation.  Each  presents  many  unsolved 
problems.  There  are  many  mysterious  lapses  and  ob- 
scure places  where  our  theories  have  to  limp  or  leap^ 
because  there  is  as  yet  no  solid  foundation  of  fact  to 
walk  upon.     All  combined,  they  constitute  one  of  the 


16  The  i^tory  of  the  New  Testament 

most  interesting  and  Instructive  realms  of  research 
known  to  the  modern  world.  It  is  but  a  simple  fact 
to  assert  that  the  New  Testament,  as  small  as  It  is,  is 
the  mental  and  moral  magnet  of  some  of  the  best  intellec- 
tual effort  of  our  modern  world.  Its  pages  are  pored  over 
more  carefully  and  continuously,  its  principles  are 
scrutinized  and  criticized  with  more  Industry  and 
acumen,  its  persons  are  studied  more  profound- 
ly. Its  problems  are  worked  at  more  laboriously.  Its 
meaning  Is  sought  for  more  earnestly,  and  its  message 
Is  understood  more  perfectly  In  our  day  than  at  any 
time  since  Paul  at  Corinth  began  the  volume  by  pen- 
ning his  pastoral  address  to  his  Thessalonian  converts, 
and  John,  in  the  far-away  Eastern  metropolis  of  Ephe- 
sus,  in  penning  some  of  its  final  paragraphs,  declared 
the  message  of  Christianity  in  order  that  the  heathen 
renegades  of  Asia  Minor  might  participate  In  the  fel- 
lowship enjoyed  by  the  apostle  of  love.  For  this  light 
we  have  to  thank  the  great  hosts  of  scholars  who  are 
so  continuously  and  so  conscientiously  and  so  courage- 
ously laboring  at  the  task  of  rightly  divining  and 
dividing  the  Word  of  Truth. 

With  the  minor  and  the  finer  points  of  these  extensive 
investigations  we  have  not,  however,  to  do  primarily. 
We  pay  our  tribute  of  respect  and  gratitude  to  these 
great  minds  and  pass  on  to  something  more  essential 
to  our  purpose  than  the  mere  scholastic  or  academic 
features  of  New  Testament  study  and  strike  boldly  out 
to  discover,  if  we  may,  its  inspirational  center  or  life, 
Its  occasidning  causes  and  its  organizing  principle. 
Hence  It  will  be  our  first  task  to  set  forth  briefly  the 
uniqueness  of  the  New  Testament  by  reason  of  the  place 
it  assigns  to  the  personality  of  Jesus.  We  shall  then 
take  up  the  subject  of  the  New  Testament  in  the  making 
and  discover,  if  possible,  the  contributing  causes  or  the 
occasions  that  precipitated  the  several  books.  This  part 
of  our  discussion  will  necessarily  be  more  prolonged  and 
more  minute,  as  we  shall  seek  to  get  a  clear  conception 


Why  Have  We  a  New  Testament  17 

of  the  origin,  purpose,  contents,  and  general  teaching  of 
each  book.  But  this  is  the  New  Testament  before  it  real- 
ly became  the  New  Testament.  From  this  special  study 
of  the  various  elements  that  go  to  make  up  the  volume 
we  must  pass  in  our  subsequent  study  to  touch  briefly  on 
the  organizing  principle  at  work  in  fashioning  a  homo- 
geneous volume  out  of  so  heterogeneous  a  mass  of  litera- 
ture. Here  we  shall  consider  as  clearly  as  we  may  the 
formation  of  the  canon  or  the  rescuing  of  the  several 
Gospels  and  letters  from  the  obscurity  and  confusion 
of  their  early  surroundings  and  their  fusion  into  a 
single  volume.  This  will  bring  us  to  the  time  in  the 
fourth  century  when  the  New  Testament  as  we  know 
it  first  becomes  a  reality. 

And  now,  first  of  all,  why  have  we  a  New  Testament 
or  the  possibility  of  one? 

The  brief  and  conclusive  answer  to  this  question  is: 
Because  we  have  had  a  new  revelation  of  God,  and  as 
the  outcome  of  this  new  revelation  we  have  had  a  new 
life,  and  as  the  registration  and  explanation  of  this 
new  life  we  have  a  new  literature.  We  cannot  suppose 
that  the  conceptions  of  Moses,  the  illuminating  inspira- 
tions of  Isaiah,  or  the  pathetic  plaints  of  the  prophet 
of  the  exile  could  have  been  forever  confined  in  the 
hearts  of  the  men  that  first  experienced  them.  Men 
must  express  to  men  their  impressions  from  God.  Per- 
sonal testimony  is  the  only  channel  for  the  communica- 
tion of  truth.  The  burden  of  the  Lord  is  too  much  to 
hear.  We  have  to  share  it  with  God's  people;  and  so 
they  too  become  the  custodians  of  his  grace,  and  the 
oracles  of  God  are  committed  to  their  keeping.  We 
cannot  conceive  how  these  would  not  in  the  ordinary 
ongoing  of  human  affairs  find  a  lodgment  in  literature. 
And  as  life  is  always  back  of  literature,  when  the  Life 
of  life  came  to  earth,  the  literatures  of  the  world  should 
open  their  doors  and  invite  within  the  heavenly  Guest. 
We  might  not  have  been  able  to  forecast  the  type.  We 
should  probably  have  conjured  up  a  New  Testament 
much  grander  in  style  and  much  more  Imposing  In  ap- 
2 


18  The  Stonj  of  the  New  Testament 

pearance.  But  what  we  have  is  exactly  in  accord  with 
the  requirements  of  the  case.  For  as  Christianity  is 
the  impact  of  God's  life  in  sonship,  acting  and  reacting 
in  the  sphere  of  human  relations,  so  the  New  Testament 
literature  is  thoroughly  in  harmony  with  this  funda- 
mental principle.  It  were  impossible  that  such  a  life 
should  remain  forever  outside  the  pale  of  literary  set- 
ting. And  so  as  the  message  is  sonship,  the  expression 
of  this  message  is  seen  in  that  least  formal  type  of  all 
literature — namely,  the  letter — from  brother  heart  to 
brother  heart,  telling  in  lines  of  tenderest  sympathy 
and  love  of  the  claims  of  the  father  and  the  interests 
and  responsibilities  of  the  family.  This  is  the  germ 
out  of  which  it  all  grew.  This  is  the  grain  of  mustard 
that  has  developed  into  a  mighty  monarch  in  the  forest 
of  the  world's  literature,  whose  leaves  are  for  the  heal- 
ing of  the  nations.  And  this  literature  as  we  have  it 
in  its  entirety  has  certain  elements  of  uniqueness. 

One  of  the  first  marks  of  uniqueness  the  New  Testa- 
ment possesses  is  that  it  nowhere  l)etrays  a  sign  of  its 
own  existence  as  a  formal  volume.  We  shall,  of  course, 
later  come  to  the  historical  explanation  of  this  fact. 
The  fact  itself  is  simply  stated  here.  The  New  Testa- 
ment seems  to  be  sublimely  unconscious  of  its  own  ex- 
istence. Hence  it  makes  no  bold  claim.  On  the  other 
hand,  like  God,  its  supreme  Author,  it  seems  to  sit 
still  and  silently  wait  for  men  to  find  out  by  contact 
with  its  vital  power  that  it  is,  indeed,  the  Word  of 
Truth.  The  New  Testament  is  the  supreme  example 
in  literature  of  one  of  Christ's  original  utterances: 
•'He  that  seeketh  to  gain  shall  lose,  while  he  that  loseth 
his  life  for  my  sake  and  the  gospel's  shall  save  it."  And 
in  no  other  single  characteristic  does  it  bear  a  more 
lifelike  resemblance  to  its  Lord. 

If  we  had  no  other  basis  upon  which  to  build  our 
belief  in  its  inspiration,  we  have  one  in  this  wondrous 
fact.  Here  is  a  volume  made  of  pa!per,  bound  in  boards, 
printed  in  ink,  subject  to  all  the  vicissitudes  of  literary 
transmission — a  Book  made  like  unto   its  brethren  in 


Why  Have  We  a  Netv  Testament  11) 

all  things,  yet  always  without  the  sin  of  making  a  bold 
and  blatant  claim.  The  written  Word,  like  the  in- 
carnate Word,  does  not  "strive  nor  cry,"  nor  does  it  "lift 
up  its  voice  in  the  street."  Like  a  sheep  it  has  been 
led  many  and  many  a  time  "to  the  slaughter"  that  preju- 
dice and  passion  have  ever  provided  for  innocence  and 
truth;  but  simply  because  it  is  the  transcript  of  the 
mind  of  Christ — so  far  as  infinite  grace  and  goodness 
could  be  caught  in  cold  letters — one  would  never  know 
it  save  by  coming  in  vital  contact  with  it.  Surely  if 
words  reveal  thoughts,  we  have  in  the  New  Testament 
the  words  of  our  Lord  and  Saviour.  For  herein  do 
we  read  the  mind  of  Christ,  and  herein  does  that  mind 
affect  and  mold  and  transform  our  minds.  For  it  is 
by  gazing  constantly  with  unveiled  eye  into  the  mirror 
of  our  New  Testament  Scriptures  that  we  are  gradually 
changed  into  the  likeness  of  Him  who  is  the  Image  of 
the  invisible  God. 

And  this  statement  of  the  supreme  influence  of  the 
New  Testament  brings  us  to  the  next  element  of  unique- 
ness. This  is  the  marvelous  unity  that  is  manifest  in 
its  great  diversity.  One  cannot  fail  to  feel,  if  he  has 
any  religious  sense  at  all,  that  there  is  a  great  deal  in 
common  in  the  twenty-seven  books  that  make  up  our 
New  Testament,  But  at  the  same  time,  where  will  one 
find  greater  contrasts?  There  are  contrasts  as  to  time. 
What  a  wonderful  leap  of  years  between  1  Thessalo- 
nians,  say,  and  the  fourth  Gospel!  On  any  count  at 
least  a  half  century.  But  when  we  leave  years  and 
come  to  thoughts,  the  distance  is  immeasurably  in- 
creased; for  into  that  fifty  years  has  been  crammed  the 
momentum  of  eternity.  There  are  contrasts  as  to  length. 
One  may  read  Jude  in  three  minutes,  while  Luke's 
Gospel  would  probably  take  three  or  four  hours.  Sec- 
ond John  has  thirty  lines,  while  Matthew  has  nearly 
thirty  hundred.  There  are  contrasts  as  to  importance. 
Philemon  is  a  private  letter  discussing  a  domestic  mat- 
ter and  evidently  intended  by  the  writer  to  be  read 
but   once.     First   Thessalonians    is   an   earnest   appeal 


20  The  Story  of  the  New  Testament 

from  an  absent  pastor  to  a  flock  recently  gathered  from 
heathenism,  and  was  written  because  the  writer  was  not 
able  to  come  to  them  in  person.  First  Corinthians  is  a 
detailed  attempt  on  the  apostle's  part  to  answer  numer- 
ous and  perplexing  problems  that  were  vexing  the  con- 
gregations of  Christians  in  a  highly  cultivated  yet 
sensual  city  community.  Again,  there  are  contrasts  as 
to  style  and  method.  One  recalls  at  once  the  harshness 
of  Jude  and  the  vigor  and  pathos  of  Paul.  Further- 
more, there  are  contrasts  of  mental  endowments,  of  liter- 
ary skill,  of  real  and  vital  grasp  of  the  problems  in  hand. 
All  these  may  be  and  have  been  emphasized.  They  are 
patent  to  any  eye  that  reads  even  casually  the  New 
Testament.  And  we  glory  in  these  contrasts,  for  they 
constantly  remind  us  that  our  New  Testament  is  not 
mechanical,  but  vital.  It  is  not  a  low-lying  plain,  as  has 
been  said — dull,  arid,  monotonous  by  reason  of  all  of  its 
contributors  occupying  the  same  level  of  intellectual, 
moral,  and  spiritual  altitude — but  is  a  varied  landscape, 
now  moving  in  simple  narrative,  now  rolling  in  grandeur, 
now  leaping  in  majestic  heights,  now  an  abrupt  declivity, 
now  a  slow,  meandering  stream,  now  a  rich  meadow  and 
a  greensward;  and  over  it  all,  bringing  out  the  individual 
beauties  of  each  particular  phase  of  the  whole,  we  have 
ever  playing  the  sunlight  of  divine  wisdom,  the  light 
and  inspiration  of  heaven  itself,  enriching  and  glorify- 
ing the  whole  horizon  and  all  things  contained  in  its 
embrace.  And  it  is  this  light,  this  celestial  glory,  that 
is  the  common  essence  of  them  all.  This  is  the  strange 
alchemy  that  has  wrought  unity  out  of  all  this  seeming 
diversity.  This  is  the  master  music  that  has  brought 
harmony  out  of  these  many  and  at  times  discrepant,  if 
not  discordant,  notes.  So  that  what  has  been  said  of 
the  fourfold  Gospel  may  with  equal  truth  be  applied  to 
the  entire  New  Testament: 

"Though  one  set  of  facts  is  stated. 
They  by  each  one  are  related 
In  a  manner  all  his  own." 


Why  Have  We  a  New  Testament  21 

"Christ  the  Source— these  streams  forth  sending. 
High  the  Source — these  downward  tending, 
That  they  thus  a  taste  transcending 
Of  life's  Fount  to  saints  may  bring!" 

This  reference  to  the  Gospels  brings  us  to  the  third 
mark  of  the  uniqueness  of  the  New  Testament.  As 
Jesus  holds  a  unique  place  among  men,  so  the  New 
Testament  holds  a  unique  place  among  hooks.  And  it 
holds  this  place  because  it  enshrines  his  character  and 
preserv^j;  his  teachings.  For  let  us  be  well  assured  of 
this  fact:  It  is  the  presence  and  teaching  of  Jesus 
Christ  that  guarantee  perpetuity  and  immortality  to 
this  Book.  This  is  seen  from  the'  simple  consideration 
that  if  the  Jesus  of  the  Gospel  be  taken  out  of  the  New 
Testament,  if  his  words,  his  works,  his  sufferings,  his 
life  be  withdrawn,  the  whole  edifice  cracks  and  tumbles 
to  the  ground,  and  instead  of  the  beautiful  temple  of 
divine  truth  built  upon  the  foundation  of  the  apostles 
and  prophets,  with  Jesus  Christ  himself  as  the  chief 
Corner  Stone,  we  have  nothing  but  a  miserable  pile  of 
crumbling  ruins,  a  chaos  of  unrelated  and  unvitalized 
units  mutually  antagonistic  and  mutually  destructive. 
If  we  extract  Christ  from  this  volume,  away  goes  Paul; 
for  he  has  lost  the  inspiration  of  his  life.  The  nerve  of 
his  moral  fiber  has  been  rudely  cut,  for  it  is  only 
through  Christ  strengthening  him  that  he  can  do  all 
things.  And  not  only  with  regard  to  his  own  personal 
experience,  but  with  Christ  gone  he  has  no  message  for 
his  children  in  the  faith.  Take  Christ  away,  and  away 
goes  his  tender  message  of  sympathy  to  the  Thessalonian 
brethren  weeping  over  the  untimely  graves  of  departed 
loved  ones.  Away  goes  the  glorious  message  of  the 
resurrection  to  the  Corinthians:  "For  if  Christ  be  not 
raised,  your  faith  is  vain,  and  we  are  found  deceivers." 
Away  goes  Galatians.  For  if  in  the  fullness  of  time 
God  did  not  send  forth  his  Son  made  under  the  law, 
then  we  are  still  in  bondage;  there  is  no  "Abba,  Father" 
for  our  glad  hearts  to  sing;   we  are  fallen  from  grace 


22  The  ^tory  of  the  New  Testament 

and  are  yet  in  our  sins.  Take  Christ  away,  and  away 
goes  Romans,  with  all  its  incisive  analysis  of  spiritual 
need  and  its  eloquent  setting  of  the  movement  of  God's 
grace.  For  if  the  Spirit  of  Life  in  Christ  Jesus  has  not 
made  us  free  from  the  law  of  sin  and  death,  then  the 
mortal  combat  is  still  in  progress,  and  there  Is  still 
pressed  from  the  heart  of  humanity  the  despairing  cry: 
"0  wretched  man  that  I  am!  Who  will  deliver  me?" 
And  if  Jesus  is  not  at  hand  to  answer,  there  is  no  an- 
swer! 

And  so  with  Peter.  Can  we  imagine  Simftn  Peter 
without  Jesus?  Peter  deserted  him  once,  but  he  will 
never  do  so  again.  Those  two  are  indissolubly  joined; 
the  ages  cannot  separate  them.  Extract  Jesus's  influ- 
ence and  teaching  from  the  New  Testament,  and  Peter's 
will  go  too.  Let  hostile  criticism  exclude  the  Christ  of 
the  Gospels  from  the  New  Testament,  and  as  he  departs 
Peter  will  meet  him  with  his  inevitable  "Quo  vadis, 
Domine?"  And  if  the  reply  is,  "I  go  to  be  crucified 
again,  this  time  on  the  cross  of  a  perverse  skepticism," 
we  shall  again  hear  the  voice  of  the  valiant  fisherman 
of  Galilee  ring  out:  "I  go  with  thee,  Lord."  For  while 
in  a  large  sense  Christ  built  upon  Peter,  in  a  still  larger 
sense  Peter  built  upon  Christ;  and  the  fundamental 
source  of  his  life's  inspiration  is  found  in  the  joyful 
doxology:  "Blessed  be  the  God  and  Father  of  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ,  who  according  to  his  great  mercy  begat 
us  again  unto  a  living  hope  by  the  resurrection  of 
Jesus  Christ  from  the  dead  to  an  inheritance  incorrupt- 
ible, undefiled,  and  that  fadeth  not  away." 

And  so  of  John.  Should  we  ever  have  had  "the  heart 
of  Jesus" — as  the  fourth  Gospel  has  truly  been  called 
— had  we  not  first  had  Jesus  himself?  Take  him  away, 
and  the  light  and  life  of  the  beloved  disciple  depart  at 
once.  He  has  no  one  to  love  him  and  none  to  love. 
The  branch  withers  because  the  vine  is  gone;  the  soul 
famishes  because  the  water  of  life  is  withdrawn;  the 
whole  nature  starves  because  the  bread  of  heaven  has 
been   lost.     Darkness  and   blindness  and   coldness  and 


Why  Have  We  a  New  Testament  23 

deadness  come  in  rapid  and  inevitable  succession,  because 
the  light  and  warmth  and  life  of  men  has  ceased.  Ex- 
clude Jesus,  the  Jesus  of  the  Gospels,  the  Christ  of  Paul 
and  Peter  and  James  and  John,  from  the  New  Testa- 
ment, and  nothing  remains  save  a  few  deluded  and 
deluding  enthusiasts.  Instead  of  that  which  we  have 
heard  and  seen  with  our  eyes  and  our  hands  have 
handled,  we  find  ourselves  hugging  a  delusive  fancy  of 
our  own  imaginings.  Such  a  construction  of  New  Testa- 
ment phenomena  is  a  psychological,  a  moral,  and  a 
spiritual  impossibility.  The  essence,  the  core,  the  heart 
of  the  New  Testament  literature  is  the  historic  Jesus. 
He  is  its  supreme  Source.  Had  he  not  lived  and  labored 
and  loved,  it  would  never  have  seen  the  light.  He  is  its 
primal  occasion,  its  perennial  inspiration,  and  Its  con- 
stant and  abiding  glory.  For  Christianity  is  not  pri- 
marily a  book  religion.  It  is,  first  of  all,  a  Life;  and  it 
is  only  because  that  Life  was  first  lived  that  it  after- 
wards came  to  be  delineated — first  in  the  minds  and 
hearts  of  his  early  followers;  then  in  the  oral  traditions 
as  these  same  disciples  in  loving  memory  told  and  re- 
told the  old,  old  story  to  their  converts  and  their  con- 
gregations; and,  finally,  when  the  voices  of  those  that 
had  heard  him  grew  fewer  and  fewer  by  the  inroads 
that  death  made,  this  tradition  was  at  length  intrusted 
to  frail  parchment.  But  the  original  writing  was  on  the 
hearts  and  in  the  lives  of  men.  And  that  original  text 
is  still  with  us.  For,  in  the  language  of  him  who  wrote 
certainly  the  dominating  portion  of  the  New  Testament, 
the  real  Christian  Scripture  is  the  truly  Christian  char- 
acter, as  it  reflects  the  principles  incorporated  in  and 
inculcated  by  Jesus  our  Master.  For,  says  Paul  to  the 
Corinthians:  "Ye  are  our  epistle,  .  .  .  known  and 
read  of  all." 

But  back  of  all  these  minor  epistles  stands  the  great 
unabridged  volume  of  the  Word  incarnate  of  which  the 
written  word  i.s  but  a  faint  portraiture.  For  we  must 
confess  that  with  all  its  greatness  the  New  Testament 
is  but  a  faint  fragment  of  the  entire  revelation  of  God 


24  The  Story  of  the  New  Testament 

in  Christ.  By  the  time  the  fourth  Gospel  was  written 
this  fact  was  recognized.  All  the  books  that  could  be 
written  even  by  apostolic  hands  guided  by  the  Holy 
Spirit  could  not  express  to  the  full  the  grace  of  God 
in  Christ  Jesus.  The  heaven  of  heavens  could  not  con- 
tain it;  how  much  less  this  book!  It  broke  through 
the  confines  of  the  celestial  city;  it  stirred  to  life  the 
land  of  Palestine;  it  burst  through  the  barriers  of  racial 
prejudice  and  won  the  haughty  Roman;  It  sounded 
deeper  depths  and  scaled  higher  heights  than  philosophy 
ever  dared,  and  thus  won  the  admiration  of  the  subtle 
Greek.  Later  it  tamed  the  fierce  spirit  of  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  and  thus  captured  the  citadel  of  civilization  for 
all  centuries  to  come.  And  to-day  the  nations  beyond 
the  seas,  hoary  with  years,  burdened  with  superstitions, 
dead  in  trespasses  and  sins,  are  hearing  this  Voice  of 
the  Son  of  God  and  leaping  forth  from  the  grave  of  the 
past  and  springing  into  newness  of  life  in  Christ  Jesus. 
God  has  entered  into  humanity,  and  the  Word  has  be- 
come flesh  and  is  dwelling  among  us.  This  is  the 
primal  fact,  and  the  inevitable  accompaniment  of  the 
incarnate  Word  is  the  written  Word.  This  for  the 
first  century  was  a  side  issue — the  surplus  of  the  gospel. 
And  in  using  this  term  we  use  no  derogatory  language, 
but  simply  wish  to  emphasize  the  place  of  the  person 
of  our  Lord  in  the  literature  that  he  has  Inspired.  Sure- 
ly if  the  light  and  purity  of  perfect  humanity  was  so 
straitened  that  it  cribbed,  cabined,  and  confined  the 
Lord  of  glory,  much  less  could  pen  and  parchment  en- 
compass him  completely.  As  great  as  is  the  Christ  of 
these  New  Testament  pages,  the  Christ  of  Galilee,  the 
Christ  of  Mount  Hermon,  the  Christ  of  Calvary,  the 
Christ  of  the  upper  room,  the  Christ  of  the  Damascus 
road,  and  the  Christ  of  Patmos  Isle,  reverently  may  we 
say,  truthfully  must  we  say  as  we  pass  from  the  written 
to  the  incarnate  Word  and  thence  Into  the  presence  of 
the  eternal  Word: 


Why  Have  We  a  New  Testament  25 

'Our  little  systems  have  their  day; 

They  have  their  day  and  cease  to  be: 

They  are  but  broken  lights  of  thee, 
And  thou,  O  Christ,  art  more  than  they." 


Thought  Questions. 

1.  In  approaching  the  study  of.  the  New  Testament 
what  four  avenues  are  opened  to  us?  (1)  The  life.  (2) 
The  accidental  causes  that  account  for  the  writing  of 
any  of  the  several  books.  (3)  The  cause  and  process 
of  the  consolidation  of  the  several  isolated  parts  int'D  a 
book.     (4)  The  care  and  process  of  transmission. 

2  What  literary  forms  do  you  remember  to  have 
found  in  the  New  Testament? 

3.  From  a  cursory  examination  of  the  New  Testament 
would  you  judge  that  it  came  into  existence  as  the  re- 
sult of  a  studied  purpose  to  produce  a  complete  body  of 
Christian  doctrine? 

4.  Rapidly  turning  the  pages  of  the  New  Testament, 
as  you  come  to  each  book  test  your  present  knowledge 
of  it  by  asking  the  question,  What  were  the  special 
occasion  and  purpose  of  the  writing  of  this  book? 

5.  What  are  some  of  the  marks  of  the  uniqueness  of 
the  New  Testament?  (1)  Its  lack  of  consdousness  of 
self  (2)  Unity  in  diversity  (3)  The  presence  and 
teaching  of  Jesus,  the  living  Word,  binds  together  all 
and  pervades  and  preserves  the  written  Word. 

6.  Does  the  New  Testament  give  us  a  complete  picture 
of  the  Christ  and  a  full  report  of  his  teachings? 


II.  THE  OCCASIONING   CAUSE  AND  THE 

PRACTICAL  PURPOSE  OF  THE 

NEW  TESTAMENT 


Passages  for  Daily  Readings 

Sunday. — The  Life-itiving  Power  of  the  Life  of  Jesus. 
John  6:  29-40. 

Monday. — The  Self-Evidencing  Character  of  the  Life 
of  Jesus.    John  6:  41-51. 

Tuesday. — Personal  Testimony  Jesus's  Chosen  Method 
of  Perpetuating  and  Diffusing  His  Gospel.    Acts  1:  1-11. 

Wednesday. — The  Missionary  Character  of  the  Gospel 
Message.  JMatthew  28:  16-20;  John  20:  19-23;  Luke  24: 
44-49;  Mark  16:  19,  20. 

Thursday. — The  Pervading  Life  in  the  Church.  John 
15:  1-15;   16:  7-16. 

Friday. — The  Unifying  Person  in  Word  and  Evidence. 
John  17:  6-26. 

Saturday. — Some  Beautiful  Hymns  Preserved  by  the 
Historian  of  the  Gospel.    Luke  1:  46-55,  68-79;  2:  29-32. 


OuE  first  study  closed  with  the  consideration  of  the 
Person  and  teaching  of  Jesus  as  the  ruling  principle  of 
the  New  Testament.  We  begin  this  study  where  that 
one  concluded;  and* when  we  further  press  the  question. 
Why  have  we  a  New  Testament  at  all?  we  answer:  Be- 
cause Jesus  lived  and  taught  and  suffered  and  died  and 
rose  again  and,  among  his  last  words  to.  his  disciples, 
declared  that  the  Holy  Spirit  would  call  to  their  mind 
all  the  things  he  had  said  and  done  and  would  guide 
them  into  all  truth.  In  this  simple  statement  we  have 
the  prophecy  of  all  that  later  came  to  be  recorded  in 
the  Gospels  and  Epistles.  Christian  experience  and  the 
Christian  Scriptures  have  therefore  a  common  parent- 
age in  that  they  are  begotten  of  the  Spirit  of  the  living 
God;  hence  they  have  always  gone  hand  in  hand.  This 
likewise  accounts  for  the  beauty  and  order  of  these 
Scriptures;  for  the  Holy  Spirit  is  the  author  of  order, 
not  of  confusion. 
(26) 


Came  and  Purpose    -  27 

Christ's  Truth  Is  Self -Evidencing 
Christ  brought  life  and  immortality  to  light  in  his 
gospel  and  made  clear  the  light  and  imparted  the  im- 
mortality to  as  many  as  received  him.  The  truth  he 
brought  was  self-evidencing.  His  gospel  must  stand  on 
the  certification  that  conscience  gives  it,  or  it  will  fall. 
No  mere  outward  or  mechanical  buttress  can  sustain 
the  weight  of  Christian  faith.  We  are,  therefore,  pre- 
pared at  the  outset  for  the  reception  of  the  fact  that 
Christ  does  not  seem  to  have  made  any  provision  for 
reporting  his  own  words.  He  wrote  upon  the  hearts 
of  his  disciples  living  truths.  While  he  lived  on  the 
earth,  books  were  superfluous;  when  he  ascended  into 
heaven,  the  same  truths  were  illustrated  in  the  lives 
of  his  disciples. 

Jesus  Chose  Witnesses,  Not  Scrides 
Hence  it  was  that  when  Jesus  went  away  all  he 
needed  was  witnesses  to  his  grace  and  power.  There 
is  no  evidence  to  show  that  he  chose  these  with  any 
idea  of  turning  them  into  writers.  The  world  of  his 
day,  as  well  as  of  ours,  was  already  too  much  afflicted 
with  "scribal  smartness."  So  these  his  followers  were 
not  called  to  be  writers  about  him,  but  witnesses  of 
him.  They  were  not  only  commissioned  to  tell  men 
by  word  of  lip;  they  were  also  commanded  to  compel 
men  by  deed  of  life  to  take  knowledge  that  they  had 
been  with  him.  Furthermore,  their  previous  training 
had  nearly  all  been  in  the  line  of  oral  discourse.  By 
birth  they  were  simple  men  with  little  capacity  or  in- 
clination for  literary  work.  Coupled  with  this  was  the 
fact  that  for  quite  a  while  the  activity  of  the  twelve 
was  confined  to  Jerusalem,  where  their  personal  super- 
vision of  the  growing  Church  made  written  communica- 
tion unnecessary.  A  third  consideration  must  have  been 
the  expectation  of  the  near  return  of  Jesus.  This  fact 
of  itself  rendered  it  impossible  that  these  early  disciples 
should  have  a  desire  to  write  for  the  benefit  of  coming 
generations,   which    on   their   supposition   would   never 


28  The' Story  of  the  New  Testament 

materialize.  Again,  so  long  as  these  witnesses  lived  and 
could  get  to  those  who  needed  instruction  there  was  no 
need  for  written  intervention.  If  Paul,  for  example, 
had  not  been  hindered  from  getting  to  Rome,  we  may 
presume  that  the  present  letter  to  that  Church  would 
never  have  been  penned.  If  he  had  been  able  to  get 
back  to  Thessalonica  as  soon  as  he  wanted  to,  the  first 
letter  to  the  little  flock  there  would  not  have  been  sent. 
Of  course  it  would  not  have  been  misunderstood,  and 
the  second  letter  as  we  have  it  need  never  have  been 
written.  These  examples  are  simply  cited  to  illustrate 
the  point  that,  so  far  as  the  occasion  of  New  Testament 
literature  is  concerned,  the  backbone  of  it — namely,  the 
Epistles — is  simply  the  connecting  link  between  the  lo- 
cal Church  and  the  absent  apostle.  The  letter  is  writ- 
ten simply  because  they  cannot  come  together  in  any 
other  way. 

The  New  Testament  Books  Are  Occasional 

This  brings  us  at  once  to  recognize  the  occasional 
character  of  the  New  Testament  writings.  This  means 
that  they  came  to  birth  because  certain  conditions  were 
on.  It  necessarily  follows  from  this  that  if  the  occa- 
sions had  been  different  the  writings  themselves  would 
have  differed  accordingly.  We  cannot  conceive,  how- 
ever, that  the  Church  would  have  remained  any  con- 
siderable time  without  a  literature.  Still  it  is  easy  to 
see  how  our  New  Testament  might  have  been  a  very 
different  book.  Had  the  heresy  of  the  Galatians  and 
that  of  the  Colossians  changed  places,  the  respective 
rebukes  to  these  renegades  would  have  varied  according, 
ly.  And  so  of  other  occasions  that  gave  rise  to  letters. 
Had  Onesimus  never  run  away;  or  having  run  away, 
had  he  never  gone  to  Rome;  or  having  run  away  and 
gone  to  Rome,  had  he  not  found  Paul;  or  having  run 
away  and  gone  to  Rome  and  found  the  apostle,  had  he 
not  been  converted,  his  name,  forsooth,  would  in  all 
probability  never  have  been  heralded  in  Christian  let- 
ters, nor  would  the  aged  apostle  have  had  the  oppor- 


Cause  and  Purpose  29 

tunity  to  show  so  tactfully  and  so  beautifully  his  ex- 
quisite sense  of  Christian  courtesy  in  the  very  way  in 
which  it  shines  in  this  brief  note  which  has  been  char- 
acterized as  "a  veritable  chef-d'oeuvre  of  the  art  of  let- 
ter-writing." But,  let  us  not  forget,  Paul  would  have 
been  just  as  much  a  Christian  gentleman  even  though 
this  opportunity  for  showing  it  had  never  presented 
itself.  And  this  is  the  base  line  we  wish  to  work  from. 
We  can  easily  imagine  different  conditions  surrounding 
our  New  Testament  writings  and  different  occasions 
calling  them  forth,  but  with  these  externals  we  should 
have  to  stop.  We  cannot  conceive  of  a  different  spirit 
for  our  New  Testament;  all  the  change  we  can  conjure 
up  is  in  application,  not  in  principle.  For  the  written 
Word,  with  all  its  variety  of  scene  and  scope,  has  ever 
behind  it  the  Word  incarnate,  "the  same  yesterday,  and 
to-day,  and  forever." 

The  Formal  and  the  Essential 

There  is  usually  discoverable  in  the  New  Testament 
books  a  form  which  is  local  and  transitory  and  a  spirit 
which  is  good  for  all  times  and  places.  It  is  the  lat- 
ter which  gives  the  books  their  highest  value  for  suc- 
cessive centuries  and  that  contains  for  us  "the  essence 
of  Christianity."  Take  any  of  the  Epistles  of  Paul— for 
example,  First  Corinthians.  No  one  with  any  religious 
sense  can  for  a  moment  dream  of  a  time  when  the  thir- 
teenth chapter  of  that  letter  will  abdicate  its  throne 
of  sovereignty  over  the  human  heart.  Or  the  Roman 
letter.  Can  we  imagine  any  Christianity  that  will  take 
us  deeper  or  higher  in  the  realm  of  Christian  experience 
than  the  seventh  and  eighth  chapters,  or  any  spirit  of 
unselfishness  in  Christian  service  more  true  and  tri- 
umphant than  that  detailed  in  the  twelfth?  The  re- 
ligious consciousness  of  humanity  has  always  responded 
with  an  emphatic  "No!" 


30  The  Story  of  the  New  Testament 

The  New  Testament  'but  a  Part  of  the  Apostolic 
Writings 

Another  general  characteristic  that  should  be  men- 
tioned here  is  the  fragmentary  character  of  our  New 
Testament.  It  is  to  be  borne  in  mind  that  none  of  the 
New  Testament  writers  wrote  with  the  conscious  pur- 
pose of  producing  a  New  Testament.  Indeed,  we  here 
use  the  term  by  a  leap  of  anticipation;  for  the  New 
Testament  in  our  sense  of  the  term  was  not,  but  was 
in  the  process  of  becoming.  The  form  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment, largely  letters,  suggests  that  it  was  designedly  the 
least  formal  of  literary  monuments.  It  certainly  does 
not  contain  the  vast  ocean  of  ideals  and  impulses  set 
in  motion  when  our  earth  was  blessed  with  the  pressure 
of  the  footprints  of  the  Son  of  Man.  Just  as  the  four- 
fold gospel  story,  with  all  its  varying  points  of  view, 
cannot  exhaust  the  content  of  the  character  of  Christ, 
so  the  whole  round  of  books  have  caught  and  trans- 
mitted for  us  but  a  small  part  of  the  life  and  thought 
of  the  apostolic  days.  The  literature  that  survives  is 
always  the  "fragment  of  a  fragment."  What  has  be- 
come of  the  many  gospels  to  which  Luke  refers?  Of 
those  many  private  letters  that  Paul  must  have  written? 
Of  the  twenty-seven  books  in  the  New  Testament,  twen- 
ty-one are  letters;  and  of  these,  fourteen  (exactly  two- 
thirds)  are  attributed  to  Paul.  If  we  omit  from  this  num- 
ber Hebrews,  we  have  thirteen  letters  which  may  be  fair- 
ly accepted  as  from  his  pen.  Do  these  thirteen  epistles 
contain  all  that  Paul  ever  thought  or  taught  about 
Christ?  The  public  life  of  Paul  extended  over  a  period 
of  at  least  twenty-six  years.  We  know  that  within 
thirteen  or  fourteen  years  he  wrote  thirteen  letters,  and 
that  seven  of  these  were  written  within  a  period  of  five 
years.  How  much  more  Paul  must  have  written  and 
taught!  If  the  New  Testament  books  that  we  have  be 
but  the  overflow,  what  must  have  been  the  full  sweep  of 
the  tidal  wave  of  divine  life  that  broke  upon  the  shores 
of  time  when  the  Son  of  God  stood  robed  in  human 


Cawse  and  Purpose  31 

garb,  spake  with  a  human  tongue,  felt  with  a  human 
heart,  and  out  of  human  eyes  sent  those  gentle  but 
dynamic  gleams  which  have  ever  since  that  glad  hour 
proved  the  dayspring  of  human  hope? 

The  Foundation  Gospel  and  Its  First  Literary  Expres- 
sion 

Of  course  it  is  not  our  purpose  to  give  in  detail  at 
this  point  an  introduction  to  each  of  the  several  books 
that  we  find  now  in  our  canonical  corpus.  This  task 
will  occupy  us  through  several  subsequent  studies.  All 
we  want  to  do  now  is  to  illustrate  in  general  the  two 
points  we  have  been  making  with  regard  to  the  occa- 
sional character  and  fragmentary  condition  of  the  litera- 
ture it  contains.  The  temple  of  our  New  Testament 
Scriptures  was  not  built  in  a  day,  nor  did  it  descend 
from  heaven  like  the  completed  city  of  the  Apocalypse, 
all  symmetrical.  It  is  not  a  mechanism,  but  an  organ- 
ism. It  was  not  manufactured;  it  grew.  It  is  a  living 
temple,  thus  paradoxically  illustrating  at  least  two 
prominent  phases:  its  solidity  and  harmony  and  its 
vitality  and  inspirational  value.  Can  we  not  picture 
to  ourseUes  the  process  of  its  construction,  at  least  so 
far  as  the  early  stages  are  concerned?  In  the  first  place, 
we  can  rest  assured  that  there  was  the  oral  tradition 
which  represented  the  current  of  evangelical  testimony. 
This  had  as  its  kernel,  as  even  a  casual  glance  at  the 
Gospels  and  Epistles  will  show,  the  sufferings,  death, 
and  resurrection  of  Jesus.  This  is  "the  Gospel"  back 
of  the  Church  itself  and  back  of  the  New  Testament. 
This  was  not  to  be  committed  to  frail  papyrus,  but  to 
find  expression  in  human  lives  and  be  sealed  by  sacri- 
ficial deaths.  This  could  be  communicated  at  its  high- 
est only  by  human  testimony  orally  delivered  and  ocu- 
larly demonstrated.  This  had  its  warrant  in  the  ex- 
ample of  Jesus.  The  mystery  of  godliness  must  ever  be 
manifested  in  the  flesh.  This  is  the  method  he  charged 
upon  his  disciples,  and  we  find  them  following  it  faith- 
fully and  fearlessly.    It  is  only  when  the  decrees  of  the 


32  The  Story  of  the  New  Testament 

Council  of  Jerusalem  are  to  be  sent  out  that  we  see  or 
hear  anything  of  a  documentary  character  issuing  from 
the  Church.  And  this  is  merely  a  ruling  sent  to  Gen- 
tile brethren  coupled  with  fraternal  greetings  from  the 
mother  Church.  No  importance  is  attached  to  its  writ- 
ten form;  for  the  whole  sequel  shows  that  this  form  was 
regarded  as  an  innovation,  since  the  decree  goes  forth 
not  alone,  but  in  the  hands  of  two  sympathetic  men  who 
presumably  are  to  read  and  interpret  its  spirit  to  the 
scattered  Gentile  groups.  But  the  land  of  literature 
once  entered,  there  was  not  any  possibility  of  its  be- 
ing deserted. 

We  are  safe  in  asserting  that  the  first  section  of  our 
New  Testament  writings  is  that  designated  as  Epistles. 
This  is,  as  we  have  seen,  more  or  less  occasional,  and 
is  designed  to  take  the  place  of  personal  instruction  on 
the  part  of  the  absent  apostle.  Take,  for  illustration,  the 
so-called  First  Epistle  to  the  Corinthians.  It  seems  that 
a  series  of  questions  had  been  sent  by  the  Church  at 
Corinth  to  Paul,  probably  in  a  letter  now  lost.  Some 
of  these  questions  we  can  formulate  from  his  answers 
— namely:  "Where  should  Christian  conscience  draw  the 
line  in  the  matter  of  sex  relation?"  "How  should  a 
Christian  act  with  regard  to  the  eating  of  meat  offered 
to  idols?"  "How  is  the  true  presence  of  the  Spirit  to  be 
recognized?"  These  and  other  questions  relating  to  the 
conduct  of  a  Christian  in  a  corrupt  community  gave  Paul 
his  opportunity  to  put  on  record  his  conception  of  the  so- 
cial message  of  Christianity.  Possibly  these  inquirers 
hardly  hoped  for  more  than  categorical  replies  to  their 
several  interrogations.  Probably  they  thought  that  these 
answers  would  be  given  by  word  of  mouth  through  a  mes- 
senger. But,  fortunately  for  all  after  ages,  Paul  saw  at 
a  glance  that  the  great  trouble  at  Corinth  was  not  so 
much  problems,  either  of  conduct  or  of  conscience,  but 
rather  unconscious  ignorance  and  willful  ignorance  of  the 
fundamental  principles  of  the  gospel  itself  in  its  opera- 
tion in  the  social  sphere.  And  so  while  his  answers  to 
these  questions  are  in  a  sense  local,  yet  they  enshrine 


Cause  and  Purpose  oo 

principles  as  immortal  as  truth  itself;  and,  so  far  as  their 
practical  value  is  concerned,  social  Christianity  after 
twenty  centuries  has  no  clearer  consciousness  nor 
stronger  platform  than  this  presentation  from  Paul's 
pen,  wherein  he  prescribes  for  the  varied  ills  that  af- 
flict the  body  politic  a  generous  dosage  of  sympathy, 
service,  and  sacrificial  love. 

The  fragmentary  character  of  this  correspondence, 
not  only  in  its  original  compass,  but  much  more  so  in 
that  which  remains,  is  sufficiently  indicated  by  refer- 
ring to  1  Corinthians  5:  9,  from  which  it  seems  that  a 
letter  from  Paul  to  that  Church  preceded  this  so-called 
first;  while  the  tenor  of  our  so-called  Second  Corinthians 
seems  to  necessitate  a  letter  just  previous  to  it  and  re- 
ferred to  in  2  Corinthians  2:  4,  a  letter  which  caused 
the  apostle  great  anguish  to  write  and  the  Corinthians 
great  grief  to  read.  Again,  unless  we  embrace  the 
theory  that  Ephesians  is  a  circular  letter,  we  have  to 
adopt  the  idea  from  Colossians  4:  16  that  a  whole  letter 
has  been  lost  from  Paul's  pen.  If,  however,  such  a  let- 
ter (that  to  the  Laodiceans)  should  be  found,  and  if  it 
should  authenticate  itself  both  by  external  and  by  in- 
ternal evidence  to  the  consciousness  of  Christendom,  it 
would  be  entirely  within  the  province  of  the  Church  to 
incorporate.it  into  the  canon.  Neither  the  example  of 
the  ante-Nicene  fathers  nor  the  spirit  of  the  Reformers 
could  be  haled  as  an  obstacle  to  such  a  procedure.  For 
it  is  ever  true  that  while  the  gospel  made  the  Church, 
the  Church  in  its  turn  made  both  the  Gospels  and  Epis- 
tles. The  gospel  is  the  source  of  our  life,  but  the 
Church  is  ever  the  maker  of  its  literature. 

The  Gospel  in  the  Gospels 

This  same  element  of  occasional  character  and  frag- 
mentary conditions  is  characteristic  of  the  second 
grand  division  of  our  New  Testament — namely,  the  Gos- 
pel section.  While  the  gospel  antedates  the  Epistles,  the 
Gospels  are  subsequent  thereto.  The  Church  is  , first 
founded    by    e^'angelistic   testimony,    then   grounded    in 


34  The  Star}/  of  the  Neiv  Testament 

evangelic  tradition.  The  logical  order  in  the  New 
Testament  is,  first,  the  life  that  Christ  gives,  then  the 
life  that  Christ  lived.  The  one  is  the  theme  of  apostolic 
preaching,  both  oral  and  epistolary;  the  other  the  sub- 
ject of  evangelic  exposition-.  But  we  must  ever  believe 
that  it  is  the  life  in  Christ  that  is  the  basis  of  the  be- 
liever's interest  in  the  life  of  Christ.  With  this  caveat 
we  recognize  from  the  start  a  great  body  of  traditional 
matter  relative  to  the  life  and  teaching  of  Jesus.  At 
what  time  it  began  to  be  formulated  in  documents  we 
cannot  dogmatically  decide.  Certainly  it  is  huge  enough 
at  the  time  of  the  writing  of  the  Fourth  Gospel  to  justi- 
fy the  hyperbole:  "Even  the  world  would  not  contain 
the  books  that  should  be  written."  And  even  when  we 
approach  our  earliest  Gospel  we  find  that  it  is  by  no 
means  an  innovation;  it  is  presumably  a  successor  to  a 
line  of  antecedents  that  covers  more  or  less  completely 
the  distance  in  space  between  Jerusalem  and  Rome,  and 
in  time  between  the  death  of  Jesus  and  the  destruction 
of  the  Jewish  State.  Possibly  the  first  cycle  of  evangelic 
tradition  which  we  can  put  our  hands  upon  is  that  em- 
bodied in  our  Second  Gospel — Mark— together  with  the 
contents  of  a  document  which  recent  criticism  has  ex- 
humed from  the  pages  of  Luke  and  Matthew  and  to 
which  reference  is  made  under  the  symbol  Q.  The 
resurrection  of  the  corpse  of  Q  has  been  due  to  the 
critical  skill  of  modern  scholarship.  But  Mark  has  ever 
been  with  us,  at  least  since  the  days  of  the  early  fathers. 
One  of  these  ancient  worthies,  Papias,  as  reported  by 
the  historian  Eusebius,  has  this  to  say  with  regard  to 
the  belief  of  his  time: 

Mark,  having  become  the  interpreter  of  Peter,  wrote 
down  accurately  whatever  he  remembered,  not,  however, 
recording  in  order  what  was  either  said  or  done  by 
Christ;  for  he  was  neither  a  hearer  nor  a  follower  of 
the  Lord.  But  later,  as  I  said,  he  followed  and  heard 
Peter,  whose  custom  was  to  adapt  his  teaching  to  the 
needs  of  the  occasion,  but  not  with  any  purpose  of  giv- 
ing a  connected  account  of  the  Lord's  w^ords.  So  that 
Mark  made  no  mistake   in  writing  some  things  as  he 


Cause  and  Purpose  35 

remembered  them,  for  he  made  it  a  point  of  special  care 
not  to  omit  anything  he  heard  or  to  falsify  a  whit. 
(Eusebius's  History,  2:  39.) 

This  tradition  is,  again  given  in  a  more  elaborate 
form  by  Eusebius  in  another  place  in  his  History  (2: 
15): 

So  greatly,  however,  did  the  light  of  piety  enlighten 
the  minds  of  Peter's  hearers  that  it  was  not  sufficient  to 
hear  but  once  or  to  receive  the  unwritten  teaching  of 
the  divine  preaching,  but  with  all  manner  of  entreaties 
they  importuned  Mark,  whose  Gospel  we  have,  and  who 
was  a  follower  of  Peter,  that  he  should  leave  them  in 
writing  a  memorial  of  the  teaching  which  had  been 
orally  communicated  to  them.  Nor  did  they  cease  until 
they  had  prevailed  with  the  man,  and  thus  became  the 
cause  of  that  writing  which  is  called  the  Gospel  of 
Mark.  They  say  also  that  the  apostle  [Peter],  having 
learned  what  had  been  done — the  Spirit  having  revealed 
it  to  him — was  pleased  with  the  zeal  of  the  men  and 
authorized  the  work  for  use  by  the  Churches. 

If  our  traditional  conception  of  the  New  Testament 
Scriptures  causes  us  to  rebel  at  all  this  and  look  upon 
it  as  mere  later  legend,  what  are  we  to  do  with  the 
state  of  the  case  as  outlined  in  one  of  our  accepted  Gos- 
pels? Luke  in  his  preface  states  some  things  which  are 
germane  to  the  approach  we  moderns  must  make  to  our 
New  Testament  Gospels.  We  are  all  familiar  with  the 
form  of  his  preface,  but  have  we  taken  in  its  full  sig- 
nificance as  a  guide  to  gospel  composition?  It  reads  in 
the  American  Revised  text:  "Forasmuch  as  many  have 
taken  in  hand  to  draw  up  a  narrative  concerning  those 
matters  which  have  been  fulfilled  among  us,  even  as 
they  delivered  them  unto  us,  who  from  the  beginning 
were  eyewitnesses  and  ministers  of  the  word,  it  seemed 
good  to  me  also,  having  traced  the  course  of  all  things 
accurately  from  the  first,  to  write  unto  thee  in  order, 
most  excellent  Theophilus;  that  thou  mightest  know 
the  certainty  concerning  the  things  wherein  thou  wast 
instructed."     (Luke  1:  1-4.) 

Now,  without  going  into  any  exhaustive  investiga- 
tion of  all  that  is  implied  in  this  graceful  introduction. 


36  The  Story  of  the  New  Testament 

acknowledged  by  experts  to  be  as  classic  as  anything 
Demosthenes  himself  ever  penned,  each  one  of  these 
four  verses  contains  an  interesting  item.  Verse  one 
states  that  there  were  in  Luke's  time  "many"  who  were 
so  impressed  by  the  transcendent  interest  of  the  Chris- 
tian movement  as  to  draw  up  narratives  of  its  rise  and 
progress.  In  the  second  verse  we  have  it  distinctly  af- 
firmed that  these  narratives  were  based  ultimately  upon 
autoptic  testimony,  while  at  the  same  time  it  is  clearly 
inferred  that  the  writer  of  our  Third  Gospel  does  not 
claim  to  be  any  closer  to  the  source  than  the  second 
generation.  The  third  verse  gives  his  qualifications  for 
his  task.  As  he  sees  them,  these  lie  in  the  fact  that  he 
has  "traced  the  course  of  all  things  accurately  from  the 
first."  These  criteria  are  important.  His  knowledge 
was  comprehensive  in  scope  and  accurate  in  detail. 
This  constitutes  his  credentials  as  a  historian;  and  he 
does  not  betray  the  slightest  suspicion  that  his  writing 
is  going  to  differ  a  whit  from  that  of  the  "many"  save 
in  so  far  as  these  characteristics  continue  to  be  his.  In 
the  fourth  verse  he  emphasizes  the  end  he  has  in  view: 
"That  thou  mightest  know  the  certainty  concerning  the 
things  wherein  thou  wast  instructed."  Theophilus  is  a 
catechumen,  doubtless  a  Gentile  convert.  He  has  been 
taught  many  things — possibly  contradictory  things — 
concerning  his  recently  accepted  religion.  He  needs  to 
know.  His  heart  cries  out:  "How  can  I,  except  some 
man  should  guide  me?"  And  Luke,  the  beloved  physi- 
cian, finds  leisure  in  the  midst  of  his  busy  professional 
life  to  snatch  time  and  give  to  Theophilus  and  to  all 
the  world  the  most  universally  human  of  all  our  Gos- 
pels— the  Gospel  of  infancy  and  old  age,  of  women  and 
children,  of  publican  and  prodigal,  of  social  outcasts 
and  religious  renegades,  of  earth  and  heaven,  wherein 
the  jangling  discords  of  human  strife  mingle  freely  with 
the  music  of  angelic  hosts — who  save  the  beloved  phy- 
sician, whose  profession  led  him  through  the  whole 
gamut  of  human  relationships,  and  whose  providential 
lot  was  to  serve  as  companion  and  comforter  to  Paul,  the 


Caii.se  and  Purpose  3« 

herald  of  a  gospel  as  comprehensive  as  the  race  itself 
— who  save  this  man  with  these  resources  and  with  this 
spirit  could  have  written  this  work,  "the  most  beautiful 
book  that  ever  was  penned"? 

The  Missionary  Basis  of  the  Neio  Testament 

And  mention  of  the  universality  of  the  gospel  brings 
us  to  the  final  explanation  of  all  these  occasional  writ- 
ings. And  this  is  that  they  are  the  outcome  of  the 
missionary  attitude  and  activity  of  early  Christianity. 
The  New  Testament  Scripture  is  born  out  of  obedience 
to  the  last  command,  the  product  of  the  union  of  divine 
fullness  and  human  need.  This  is  ever  the  genesis  of 
Scripture,  the  invasion  of  the  human  realm  of  sin  and 
self  by  the  ever-expanding  energy  of  the  Spirit  of  the 
living  God.  And  so  the  New  Testament  is  a  monument 
to  the  missionary  spirit  and  success  of  the  infant 
Church.  Back  of  every  page  of  it  is  the  unwritten 
record  of  selfishness  conquered,  character  transformed, 
sin  and  Satan  vanquished.  This  volume  as  a  whole  or 
in  any  of  its  parts  had  never  been  at  all  save  for  the 
necessities  and  occasions  thrust  upon  the  apostles  by 
reason  of  their  missionary  zeal  and  evangelistic  enter- 
prise. Had  the  Church  not  heeded  the  divine  command 
and  separated  Barnabas  and  Saul  to  the  work  where- 
unto  they  had  been  called,  where  had  been  the  letters 
to  the  Thessalonians,  Philippians,  Corinthians,  Gala- 
tians,  Ephesians,  Colossians,  or  any  of  that  noble  list 
that,  in  its  geographical  extent,  sweeps  all  the  way 
from  the  shores  of  the  Pontus  to  the  banks  of  the 
Tiber?  Had  the  Church  not  gone  forth  into  the  "re- 
gions beyond,"  touching  Jews,  Romans,  Greeks,  the 
world,  where  had  been  the  ever-developing  stream  of 
our  gospel  tradition,  suiting  each  several  section  of  our 
common  humanity  as  it  emerges  to  the  consciousness  of 
the  Church?  So  we  find  the  missionary  impulse  lying 
at  the  basis  of  our  whole  New  Testament  record.  Start- 
ing with  the  book  of  Matthew,  which  sets  in  the  fore- 
front the  Jewish  genealogy  and  gives  a  somewhat  nar- 


.J8  The  iStory  of  the  .\cw  Testament 

row  channel  to  the  current  of  our  Lord's  life,  it  passes 
on  through  Mark,  the  Roman  Gospel,  and  Luke,  the 
Greek  Gospel,  to  John,  the  racial.  And  in  the  Acts  the 
graphic  tale  is  continued.  A  new  beginning  is  made  in 
Jerusalem,  only  to  set  in  motion  a  movement  that  is 
destined  to  flow  out  into  the  surrounding  hills  of  Judea, 
pervade  Palestine  with  its  beneficent  influence,  and  final- 
ly forge  its  victorious  way  to  the  heart  of  the  capital 
of  the  empire.  The  Epistles  then  take  up  the  great 
missionary  conception  incarnate  in  Christ  and  bring  its 
wondrous  message  to  bear  on  the  world  of  human 
thought,  fighting  its  way  through  Roman  ridicule, 
Corinthian  impurity,  Galatian  fickleness,  Colossian  nar- 
rowness, and  Ephesian  idolatry  until  in  the  majestic 
roll  of  apocalyptic  vision  the  city  of  our  God,  dwarfing 
by  its  celestial  magnificence  all  the  greatness  and  glory 
of  the  nations  and  kings  and  tribes  of  earth,  like  a  new- 
ly arrayed  bride  comes  down  out  of  heaven,  having  *'the 
glory  of  God  for  its  light,  and  nations  of  them  that  are 
saved  to  walk  in  it." 

Look  at  the  first  verse  of  the  New  Testament  and  con- 
trast its  scope  and  outlook  with  that  of  the  last.  That 
first  verse  reads:  "The  book  of  the  generation  of  Jesus 
Christ,  the  son  of  David,  the  son  of  Abraham."  That 
last  verse  reads:  "The  grace  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ 
be  with  all  the  saints."  In  the  light  of  these  two  state- 
ments—one narrow,  national,  earthly,  the  other  as  broad 
as  the  sea-  of  humanity  and  as  heavenly  as  the  grace  of 
God  in  Christ  can  make  it— who  can  deny  that  the  New 
Testament,  though  born  of  occasions  many  and  varied, 
though  fragmentary  and  frequently  local,  still  is  per- 
meated by  the  Spirit  of  God,  illustrative  of  the  mind  of 
Christ,  and  in  its  constant  answering  to  the  ever-grow- 
ing demands  of  the  Church  proves  itself  to  be  the 
breathing  of  the  Holy  Ghost? 

And  so  while  we  do  well  to  remember  the  occasional 
and  fragmentary  character  of  our  New  Testament,  as 
contended  for  in  this  study,  we  must  never  forget  the 
eloquent  estimate  given  by  Dr.  Philip  Schaff: 


CV///.sr  and  Piupose  oD 

Tracts  for  the  times — they  are  tracts  for  all  time, 
children  of  the  fleeting  moment — they  contain  truths 
of  infinite  moment.  They  compress  more  ideas  in  fewer 
words  than  any  other  writings.  They  discuss  the  high- 
*est  themes  that  can  challenge  an  immortal  mind.  And 
all  this  before  humble  little  societies  of  poor,  uncultured 
artisans,  freedmen,  slaves!  And  yet  they  are  of  more 
value  to  the  Church  than  all  the  systems  of  theology 
from  Origen  to  Schleiermacher — yea,  than  all  the  con- 
fessions of  faith.  For  eighteen  hundred  years  they  have 
nourished  the  faith  of  Christendom  and  will  continue 
to  do  so  till  the  end  of  time.  This  is  the  best  evidence, 
the  supreme  demonstration  of  their  divine  Inspiration. 


Thought  Questions 

1.  Why  have  we  a  New  Testament  at  all? 

2.  What  presumptions  were  there  against  the  proba- 
bility of  the  writing  of  such  a  body  of  literature  as  we 
have  in  the  New  Testament?  What  dominant  occasion 
for  the  writing? 

3.  What  proportion  of  the  literary  product  of  the  Apos- 
tolic Church  would  you  suppose  to  have  been  preserved 
in  the  twenty-seven  books  of  the  New  Testament?  Have 
we  evidence  that  any  of  the  letters  and  gospel  narra- 
tives have  been  lost  or,  if  not  lost,  left  out  of  our  New 
Testament? 

4.  Which  would  you  consider  the  more  appropriate 
metaphor  for  describing  the  process  of  the  becoming  of 
the  New  Testament — that  of  growth  or  that  of  build- 
ing? 

5.  Can  you  distinguish  between  the  gospel  and  its 
literary  expression? 

6.  From  the  book  itself  what  do  you  learn  to  have 
been  the  occasion  of  the  writing  of  the  third  Gospel? 
and  from  the  writings  of  Eusebius,  what  the  occasion 
of  the  writing  of  the  second  Gospel? 

7.  How  are  the  missionary  impulse  and  program  re- 
lated to -the  writing  of  the  New  Testament? 

8.  Your  attention  has  been  called  to  the  variable  and 
circumstantial  in  the  New  Testament  writings:  what 
are  the  constant,  the  essential,  the  unifying  factors? 


III.   THE  LETTERS   TO   THESSALONIANS 
AND  GALATIANS 


Passages  for  Daily  Readings 

Sunday. — The  Founding  of  the  Church  at  Thessalonica. 
Acts  17:  1-9;  18:  5. 

Monday. — The  Motive  for  the  Writing  of  the  First 
Epistle  to  the  Thessalonians.    1  Thessalonians  3. 

Tuesday. — Pastoral  .  Teachings  Concerning  Purity, 
Brotherly  Love,  Diligence,  the  Hope  of  the  Lord's  Com- 
ing.   1  Thessalonians  4  and  5. 

Wednesday. — A  Misunderstanding  of  the  Apostle's 
Teaching  Corrected.     2  Thessalonians  2. 

Thursday. — Paul  and  the  Judaizing  Controversy.  Acts 
15:  1-29. 

Friday. — The  Originality  and  Authority  of  Paul's 
Gospel.     Galatians  1:  11-2:  10. 

Saturday. — Faith  Versus  Works;  the  Gospel  Versus 
Law.    Galatians  3:  1-29. 


Having  set  before  our  minds  the  primal  cause  of  the 
New  Testament  and  given  a  cursory  glance  at  the  gen- 
eral occasions  that  precipitated  it,  we  are  now  ready  to 
take  our  stand  at  some  vantage  point  and  view  the 
various  elements  as  they  gradually  arise  and  finally 
marshal  themselves  into  compact  array.  The  place  in 
the  New  Testament  itself  to  begin  the  study  of  this 
phase  of  our  subject  is  the  section  known  as  the  Pauline 
Letters;  and  the  place  geographically  is  the  city  of 
Corinth.  We  must  never  forget  these  two  things:  First, 
the  inexpressible  debt  that  Christianity  owes  to  Paul 
from  the  standpoint  of  his  double  work  as  evangelist 
and  educator;  and,  secondly,  that  the  New  Testament 
had  its  birthplace  on  European  and  not  Asiatic  soil. 

Two  points  should  be  noted  as  introductory  to  any 
consideration  of  Paul's  writings — viz.: 

Their  value  as  literature.  Paul's  second  missionary 
(40) 


Thessalonians  and  Galatians  41 

journey  has  two  outstanding  characteristics.  In  the 
first  place,  it  was  during  this  venture  of  faith  that  he 
entered  Europe;  and  the  coming  of  Christianity  to  this 
new  continent  was  a  thing  of  world-wide  import.  In 
the  second  place,  it  was  on  this  journey  that  he  entered 
another  continent,  the  Continent  of  Letters.  Here,  even 
more  than  in  the  other  instance,  is  a  fact  of  tremendous 
significance.  It  is  not  going  too  far  to  assert  that  the 
thirteen  epistles  of  Paul  constitute  one  of  the  most  re- 
markable literary  outputs  history  knows.  Whether  we 
view  them  in  the  light  of  the  occasions  that  called  them 
forth,  or  from  the  standpoint  of  the  logic  and  fire  they 
themselves  contain,  or  in  the  matter  of  their  after  ef- 
fects on  individuals  and  the  Church  at  large,  the  state- 
ment remains  true  that  no  phase  of  literature  brings  to 
our  notice  a  more  interesting  or  influential  list  of  writ- 
ings than  those  whose  author  was  the  apostle  to  the 
Gentiles. 

Their  missionary  motive.  These  letters  are  all  writ- 
ten to  Churches  in  Gentile  centers  or  to  individuals  who 
have  their  home  and  work  there.  The  finest  and  fullest 
interpretation  of  the  gospel  has  always  been  reached  on 
the  background  of  a  lost  world.  So  it  is  not  strange 
that  the  New  Testament  starts  on  the  threshold  of  that 
veritable  hellhole  of  ancient  heathenism,  the  city  of 
Corinth;  and  from  this,  the  very  brink  of  perdition  itself, 
begin  to  gush  forth  the  first  rivulets  of  that  mighty  cur- 
rent of  gracious  truth  which  will  ultimately  purify  the 
world.  Hence  these  writings  stand  as  the  imperishable 
monument  to  the  missionary  zeal  of  the  early  Church. 
In  fact,  had  not  the  underlying  principle  of  foreign 
missions  been  thoroughly  recognized,  we  should  scarcely 
have  had  a  New  Testament  at  all.  Certainly  we  should 
not  now  be  studying  these  masterpieces  of  Paul's  pen 
and  heart.  For  all  of  them  have  as  their  occasioning 
cause  and  permanent  inspiration  the  fact  that  the  gos- 
pel has  been  successfully  planted  on  heathen  soil;  and 
they  are  occupied  for  the  most  part  with  the  questions 
and  problems  sprung  by  the  fact  that  the  Christians  to 


42  The  t;i(jri/  of  the  New  TvHiittncnt 

whom  they  are  directed  are  seeking  to  hold  up  the 
Christian  ideal  "in  the  midst  of  a  crooked  and  perverse 
generation." 

Four  Groups  of  Pauline  Letters 

The  thirteen  epistles  are  usually  grouped  in  four  di- 
visions: First  there  come  what  are  called  the  Mission- 
ary Epistles  (1  and  2  Thessalonians) ;  second,  the  four 
Controversial  Epistles  (Galatians,  1  and  2  Corinthians, 
and  Romans) ;  the  third  group  consists  of  the  four 
epistles  written  during  the  two  years  of  Paul's  first 
Roman  imprisonment  (Colossians,  Philemon,  Ephesians, 
and  Philippians) ;  the  fourth  and  last  group  is  that 
known  as  the  Pastorals,  of  which  1  Timothy  and  Titus 
were  written  after  his  first  Roman  captivity;  and  2 
Timothy,  the  last  product  of  his  pen,  issuing  from  the 
Roman  dungeon  just  before  Paul's  martj^rdom,  con- 
stitutes an  eloquent  and  fitting  farewell — his  valedic- 
tory to  earthly  scenes  and  sufferings,  and  at  the  same 
time  the  joyful  salutatory  in  which  he  gi/eets  the  com- 
ing glory  of  those  who  win  the  victor's  crown. 

We  shall  take  up  these  writings  in  the  order  indi- 
cated and,  as  far  as  our  limitations  permit,  will  try  to 
tell  the  story  of  their  birth.* 

I.  The  Letters  to  Thessalonica 
Introduction 
It  was  in  the  midst  of  his  second  missionary  jour- 
ney that  Paul  first  visited  Thessalonica  and  was  able 
to  plant  the  gospel  in  that  famous  city.     The  account 

*It  would  be  well  for  those  who  follow  this  narrative 
to  make  an  outline  of  each  letter.  The  following  method 
may  be  used  to  advantage:  Take  an  American  Revised 
Version  or  any  good  paragraph  Bible  and,  after  reading 
carefully  the  different  sections,  try  to  characterize  the 
contents  of  each  division  in  one's  own  words.  This 
will  serve  two  purposes,  aside  from  being  a  very  valu- 
able exercise.  It  will  prove  one  of  the  best  ways  to 
master  the  contents  of  the  letters,  and  at  the  same  time 
will  give  one  a  first-hand  approach  to  Paul's  style  and 
manner  of  thinking. 


ThcsHulonianfi  and   (UdatUins  4?> 

of  this  event  is  given  in  the  seventeenth  chapter  of 
Acts,  which  in  itself  gives  one  a  splendid  survey  of 
the  conditions  incident  to  the  founding  of  a  Christian 
community  in  a  hostile  territory.  In  this  chapter  we 
are  told  of  Paul's  entrance  into  the  city  and  of  his  ex- 
perience in  preaching  for  three  weeks  in  the  Jewish 
synagogue.  His  success  led  to  the  movement  headed 
by  jealous  Jews  who,  in  company  with  certain  riffraff 
of  the  city,  assailed  the  house  in  which  Paul  was  sup- 
posed to  be  hiding.  Disappointed  in  venting  their  rage 
on  the  arch-offender — as  they  regarded  Paul — they  did 
the  next  meanest  thing  and  prevailed  upon  the  rulers  to 
exact  bond  of  Jason  not  to  harbor  these  disturbers  of 
the  settled  order.  With  the  ban  of  the  civil  government 
heavy  upon  them,  the  Christians  at  once  saw  that  it 
would  be  better  for  the  missionaries  to  move  on  to 
Berea.  Here  they  had  at*^first  a  more  favorable  recep- 
tion. But  soon  the  news  of  this  signal  growth  reached 
Thessalonica,  and  Jewish  hate  procured  Paul's  banish- 
ment from  this  city  also.  He  did  not  stop  for  any  work 
until  he  reached  Athens.  It  was  here  that  his  thoughts 
and  longings  began  to  wander  back  to  Macedon;  and 
so  greedy  was  his  heart  after  his  young  converts  that 
he  made  at  least  two  unsuccessful  attempts  to  return 
to  them.  He  knew  that  they  were  exposed  to  fierce 
persecution  from  without,  and  he  knew  also  that  his 
stay  had  been  so  short  that  their  grasp  of  Christian 
principles  was  by  no  means  as  strong  or  as  compre- 
hensive as  he  desired.  So,  as  any  true  father,  he  longs 
to  know  the  state  of  their  case  and  is  eager  to  the 
point  of  distraction  to  be  sure  of  their  steadfastness  in 
Christ. 

The  Occasion  of  the  Writing  of  1  Thessalonians 

The  place  to  begin  the  study  of  the  occasion  of  this 
letter  is  in  the  first  paragraph  of  the  third  chapter. 
He  here  affirms  that  so  consuming  was  his  desire  to 
get  in  touch  with  them  that  he  was  willing  to  be  left 
to  handle   the   situation  at  Athens   all   alone,   if  so   be 


44  The  Story  of  the  New  Testament 

that  by  sending  Timothy  he  might  assuage  his  own 
anxiety  and  at  the  same  time  assure  their  hearts  and 
establish  them  in  the  faith.  His  great  fear  was  that, 
owing  to  the  pressure  of  persecution  and  the  innocence 
of  immaturity,  the  tempter  had  tempted  them  success- 
fully and  all  his  labor  might  be  in  vain.  So  Timothy 
was  sent,  and  Paul  was  left  alone  at  Athens.  He  soon 
wearied  of  his  lonesomeness  and  lack  of  success  in  this 
city  and  pushed  on  to  Corinth,  where  he  met  such  stag- 
gering odds  that  his  courage  failed  him  utterly,  and  he 
was  about  to  leave  in  absolute  defeat  and  despair.  Just 
about  this  time,  however,  Timothy  returned  and  brought 
him  the  glad  news  that  the  Thessalonians  were  proving 
steadfast  in  the  Lord. 

The  Encouragement  of  Success 

It  was  a  veritable  gospel  to  Paul.  It  brought  him  to 
life  again,  as  he  says;  for  the  only  gospel  that  can 
prove  a  tonic  to  the  preacher  is  the  conviction  that  his 
message  is  effective  in  winning  and  holding  men  for 
God.  Who  shall  say  how  much  Paul's  heartening  for 
his  task  at  Corinth  and  his  subsequent  success  there 
hinged  on  the  report  that  greeted  his  anxious  inquiries 
concerning  Thessalonica?  For  he  would  certainly  argue 
that  the  gospel  which  could  succeed  in  transforming  the 
people  there — steeped  as  they  were  in  centuries  of  super- 
stition and  sin  that  flowed  down  the  slopes  of  Mount 
Olympus,' the  holy  (?)  mountain  of  European  heathen- 
ism, at  whose  base  this  new  society  had  gained  a  solid 
footing — that  such  a  gospel  should  not  shrink  from 
assaulting  even  the  pit  of  hell  that  the  Corinth  of  that 
day  was!  As  these  incidents  do  not  necessitate  any 
great  length  of  time,  we  are  safe  in  saying  that  the  first 
letter  was  written  within  a  very  few  months  of  his  ini- 
tial visit.  This  accounts  for  the  vividness  with  which 
in  the  second  chapter  he  portrays  his  behavior  among 
them,  and  also  for  the  emphasis  which  in  the  llrst 
chapter  he  gives  to  the  impression  their  conversion 
made   throughout   the   contiguous  provinces   of  Greece. 


Thcssalonians  and  Galatians  45 

Paul's  appreciation  of  a  strategic  center  was  too  great 
for  him  to  minimize  the  importance  of  this  Church. 
For  in  it  he  saw  the  true  God  battling  against  the  false; 
he  saw  Christ's  challenge  to  Zeus;  he  saw  in  epitome 
the  age-long  conflict  between  the  powers  of  light  and  the 
powers  of  darkness.  No  wonder  his  heart  thrilled  as 
he  heard  Timothy  recount  the  story  of  their  steadfast 
faith,  their  heroic  suffering,  and  their  undimmed  hopes. 

The  Question  Concerning  Those  Who  Have  Died 

But  with  all  these  messages  of  comfort  Timothy 
brought  back  a  question  that  was  tr'oubling  these  people. 
And  it  is  important  for  us  to  discover  this  question  in 
order  to  appreciate  some  portions  of  the  first  letter  and 
the  reason  that  underlies  the  second. 

It  seems  possible  to  gather  the  problem  of  these  peo- 
ple from  what  Paul  says  in  the  thirteenth  to  fifteenth 
verses  of  the  fourth  chapter.  There  he  seems  to  say 
that  they  are  unduly  perplexed  concerning  the  fate  of 
their  dead  or  dying  loved  ones.  It  seems  that  they  had 
got  the  impression  that  Christ  would  come  while  all  the 
believers  were  alive.  Some  were  dead — it  may  be  that 
they  had  given  up  their  lives  under  persecution — others 
were  dying.  The  question  was:  Are  those  to  miss  any- 
thing or  lose  anything  by  not  being  in  the  flesh  when 
the  Lord  descends?  Paul's  answer  to  this  question  is 
quite  clear.  Instead  of  missing  anything,  the  dead  in 
Christ  will  rise  first;  those  left  behind  shall  in  no  wise 
precede  them.  The  basis  of  this  statement  is  that  faith 
unites  men  with  Christ  both  here  and  hereafter — a  deep 
definition  and  explication  of  personal  experience  which 
Paul  develops  later  in  Romans.  Here  he  simply  states 
it  as  the  ground  of  his  unshakable  conviction  that  God 
will  bring  with  Jesus  all  "who  fell  asleep  in  him." 

2  Thessalonians 

So  the  answer  to  their  perplexity  was  plain;  but  in 
his  answer  Paul  used  an  expression  which  seems  to 
have  led  to  a  misunderstanding  of  his  alSsolute  meaning, 


46  The  IS  tort/  of  ihc  New  Testament 

and  from  this  arose  the  necessity  for  a  second  letter 
following  close  on  the  heels,  we  may  say,  of  the  first. 
This  expression  is  in  the  fifteenth  verse  of  the  fourth 
chapter  and  reads:  "We  that  are  alive."  On  the  basis 
of  the  ambiguity  of  Paul's  "we"  arises  the  necessity  /or 
the  second  letter,  which  has  for  its  purpose  the  correc- 
tion of  the  impression  they  had  got  with  regard  to  the 
nearness  of  Christ's  coming.  He  declares  that  this 
manifestation  of  Christ  will  be  antedated  by  at  least 
two  great  events — a  great  apostasy  and  a  revelation  of 
the  man  of  sin — and  even  this  second  waits  upon  an- 
other influence,  for  he  will  not  be  revealed  until  what 
Paul  calls  "the  Restrainer"  shall  be  removed.  All  this 
may  be  dark  mystery  instead  of  revelation  to  us,  but 
it  is  matter  of  congratulation  that  the  recipients  knew 
more  about  these  subtle  hints  than  we  do.  The  matter 
had  been  to  some  extent  expounded  by  word  of  mouth 
during  Paul's  visit.  He  has  only  to  recall  to  their  mem- 
ory what  had  been  formerly  told  them  (2:  5).  So  they 
had  a  background  for  the  understanding  of  these  "dark 
sayings"  of  which  time  has  robbed  us  completely.  We 
can  only  speculate  as  to  what  really  was  in  the  apostle's 
mind;  but  even  so  we  cannot  fail  to  admire  this  splen- 
did answer  to  the  feverish  fanaticism  that  had  taken 
possession  of  these  fledgings  in  the  faith.  In  this  kind 
yet  strong  letter  he  calls  them  back  to  soberness  and 
industry,  to  that  calmness  of  soul  which  true  faith  ever 
inspires,  and  to  that  life  of  continued  well-doing  which 
is  the  only  legitimate  fruitage  of  the  Christian  pro- 
fession. 

The  General  Ivipression 

As  to  this,  we  see  illustrated  all  through  these  letters 
the  power  of  the  gospel  when  embodied  in  a  Christlike 
man  to  save  people,  however  far  they  may  be  from  God, 
and  to  perpetuate  its  ideals  amid  surroundings,  however 
unpropitious.  We  can  hardly  see  this  more  clearly  than 
unpropitious.  We  can  hardly  see  this  more  clearly  than 
anity  exemplified*  by   these   Thessalonian   converts.     In 


Thi.'iimlonhui^  and  Oalatians  47 

spite  of  the  fact  that  for  centuries  they  had  been  idola- 
ters,  the  gospel  call  comes  to  them  with  its  high  ideal; 
and  in  response  to  its  imperial  appeal  they  turn  to  the 
living  God.  They  accept  the  gospel;  they  imitate  the 
apostles  of  Christ  and  the  Churches  of  Judea  in  suffering 
persecution  for  righteousness'  sake;  they  become  ex- 
amples of  the  continent  of  Europe;  they  bring  forth  the 
fruits  of  Christian  living;  they  have  implanted  in  their 
hearts  the  imperishable  hope  of  a  glorious  resurrection; 
and,  finally,  they  become  a  great  missionary  center  from 
which  echoes  forth  the  message  of  redemption  to  all  the 
regions  round  about.  Surely  such  a  Church  is  well 
worthy  of  letters  from  an  inspired  apostle  and  doubly 
worthy  of  our  deep  study  and  most  earnest  imitation. 

II.  The  Letter  to  the  Galatians 
Introduction 

It  is  worth  while  to  notice  right  at  the  beginning 
of  our  studies  in  Paul's  writings  that  each  letter 
presents  one  or  more  additional  phase  or  phases  of 
the  apostle's  many-sided  character.  If  the  Thessalo- 
nian  correspondence  emphasizes  Paul  as  an  evangel- 
ist and  pastor,  that  to  the  Churches  of  Galatia  throws 
into  bold  relief  his  argumentative  skill  and  contro- 
versial qualities;  though  it,  like  all  his  letters,  is 
shot  through  with  all  the  intense  love  and  devotion  of 
his  nature.  This  epistle  is  the  first  of  the  great  qua- 
ternion called  by  our  German  friends  and  foes  alike  the 
Haupt-Briefe,  or  Head  Letters.  These  four  constitute 
the  second  group  and  are  occupied  mainly  with  the 
problems  sprung  by  reason  of  the  Judaistic  controversy. 
For  this  reascu  it  is  well  to  study  carefully  what  the 
book  of  Acts  has  to  say  about  this  epoch  in  Paul's  life, 
and  also  to  consult  some  handbook,  such  as  Stalker's 
or  Gilbert's,  in  order  to  get  a  larger  horizon  than  is 
possible  in  these  few  paragraphs. 

However,  the  epistle  itself  is  self-declaratory  as  to 
its   purpose   and   spirit.      It   is   one   of  the   most  virile 


48  The  Story  of  the  Xcic  Tcslament 

pieces  of  writing  that  ever  fell  from  a  human  pen.  It 
is  Paul  in  epitome.  In  fact,  no  letter  he  ever  wrote, 
save  2  Corinthians,  gives  us  such  a  clear  and  convincing 
view  of  his  character  as  a  defender  of  the  faith  and  of 
his  own  rights  and  authority  as  an  apostle.  For  these 
two  elements  run  through  the  whole  letter.  Paul  is 
issuing  his  apologia  iwo  vita  sua.  To  defend  the  gos- 
pel is  to  defend  his  gospel;  for  there  is  but  one,  and  he 
has  that.  But  to  defend  his  gospel  is  to  assert  his 
originality;  it  was  received  directly  from  Christ  and 
transmitted  by  word  of  mouth  and  deed  of  life  by  him 
to  his  converts. 

Date  and  Destination 

These  two  points  are  inextricably  interwoven;  and,  un- 
fortunately, no  consensus  of  opinion  exists  even  among 
the  greatest  scholars.  In  answering  the  question,  Who 
are  the  people  whom  Paul  addresses  in  this  epistle?  two 
main  replies  are  heard.  Some  master  students  maintain 
that  they  are  the  people  whom  Paul  evangelized  on  his 
first  missionary  journey  in  and  around  Pisidian  Antioch 
and  Lystra.  Other  scholars  just  as  great  hold  that  they 
were  people  living  in  the  cities  of  Ancyra,  Pessinus,  and 
Tavium,  in  the  upper  part  of  Central  Asia  Minor. 

As  to  the  date,  if  one  adopts  the  North  Galatian 
theory,  the  letter  could  not  have  been  written  anterior 
to  the  third  missionary  journey,  and  the  probable  place 
of  writing  is  Ephesus.  On  the  Southern  theory  It  could 
hardly  have  been  written  at  a  later  date  than  the  close 
of  the  second  journey  or  the  opening  days  of  the  third. 
The  reason  for  both  these  views  is  found  in  the  same 
passage  (4:  13),  where  Paul  limits  his  visits  at  the  time 
of  writing  to  two.  On  our  conception  the  date  and  place 
of  writing  point  to  Antioch  in  Syria  during  the  time 
between  the  second  and  third  missionary  journeys.  This 
makes  the  second  chapter  of  special  significance  and  at 
the  same  time  suggests  that  Paul's  experience  with 
Mark  has  given  him  an  opportunity  to  sharpen  his 
stick  for  all  renegades  of  whatever  sort  or  degree.     Tt 


Thcssalon'ums  and  Galatlans  4!) 

also  shows  Paul  holding  firmly  to  the  principles  which 
the  recent  General  Conference  at  Jerusalem  had  so 
clearly  set  forth  and  commissioned  him  along  with  oth- 
ers to  promulgate.  In  spite  of  this,  however,  it  is  but 
fair  to  say  that  some  few  scholars,  including  Theodor 
Zahn,  the  Coryph£eus  of  German  conservatism,  maintain 
that  Galatians  is  the  first  of  all  Paul's  letters,  while  one 
or  two  erratic  geniuses  decide  that  it  was  not  written 
until  the  time  of  the  Roman  captivity. 

Its  Occasion  and  Contents 

However  much  critics  may  argue  about  the  date  and 
destination  of  this  letter,  any  plain  reader  can  compass 
its  occasion  and  contents.  The  whole  tenor  of  the  writ- 
ing postulates  the  existence  of  a  regular  propaganda  of 
the  Judaizers,  the  business  of  which  was  to  dog  the  foot- 
steps of  Paul,  harry  his  newly  gathered  converts,  and 
seek  by  all  sorts  of  insinuation,  misrepresentation,  and 
prevarication  to  uproot  his  authority  and  proselyte  his 
followers.  This  party  had  received  a  defeat  at  the  Jeru- 
salem council.  It  had  also  received  a  stinging  rebuke 
at  Antioch.  Such  a  double  drubbing — one  in  the  capital 
city  of  Jewish  Christianity,  the  other  in  the  capital  city 
of  Gentile  Christianity — ought  to  have  ended  their  labors. 
But  no.  They  pounced  with  all  the  fury  of  their  unsatis- 
fied jealousy  upon  the  unsuspecting  fiock  in  the  wilds  of 
Galatia  and  by  a  conscienceless  mixture  of  hypocritical 
and  hypercritical  assumption  and  presumption  so  poi- 
soned the  minds  of  Paul's  spiritual  children  as  well-nigh 
to  wean  them  from  their  father's  loving  embrace.  Nay, 
more.  By  a  specious  emphasis  on  Mosaic  ceremonialism 
they  had  well-nigh  loosed  their  grip  on  the  gospel  of 
grace.  Their  faith  in  Christ  was  nearly  gone.  Having 
begun  in  the  Spirit,  they  were  now  occupying  the 
ridiculously  tragic  attitude  of  seeking  perfection  by 
way  of  the  flesh. 

Such  a  condition  was  a  clarion  call  for  urgent  and 
aggressive  action.  The  apostle  sprang  to  the  issue  and 
gave  forth  his  mind  in  an  epistle  that  has  proved  as 
4 


50  The  Story  of  the  New  Testament 

epochal  in  the  history  of  Christianity  as  the  English 
Magna  Charta  or  the  American  Declaration  of  Independ- 
ence has  in  the  history  of  human  liberty.  Indeed,  one  of 
the  most  illuminating  characterizations  it  has  earned  is 
"The  Emancipation  Proclamation  of  Early  Christianity." 
The  letter  has  three  sections  corresponding  roughly 
with  chapters  one  and  two,  which  are  mainly  personal; 
chapters  three  and  four,  which  constitute  the  polemical 
portion;  and  chapters  five  and  six,  which  may  be  gen- 
erally described  as  practical  exhortations.  Of  course 
there  are  interlappings  among  the  parts — transition 
paragraphs  that  form  the  connecting  links  between  the 
sections.  Personal  Section 

In  the  personal  section  Paul  defends  his  apostolic  call 
and  authority  and  stoutly  asseverates  his  originality  as 
a  gospel  preacher.  Indeed,  omitting  his  usual  para- 
graph of  gratitude,  he  plunges  into  a  bold  assertion  of 
the  uniqueness  of  the  message  he  heralds  and  defies  men 
and  angels  to  preach  any  other.  In  answer  to  the  in- 
sinuations that  his  enemies  had  sown  in  the  minds  of 
his  converts,  casting  suspicion  on  him  as  a  mere  under- 
study of  the  primal  apostles  at  Jerusalem,  he  enters  into 
a  minute  proof  that  he  never  had  any  contact  with  them, 
either  before  or  after  his  conversion,  that  would  in  the 
slightest  degree  warrant  their  aspersion.  He  had  none 
at  all  before  his  conversion.  They  were  going  the  other 
way,  fleeing  from  Saul  the  persecutor,  not  seeking  to 
lead  him  to  Christ.  And  as  for  the  meetings  he  had 
had  with  them  since  the  event,  an  accurate  analysis  jus- 
tified the  assertion  that  all  such  contact  had  simply  re- 
vealed either  his  equality  loith  them  or  his  superiority 
to  them  in  his  grasp  of  the  essence  of  the  gospel.  Hence 
his  solid  conviction  is  that  he  did  not  receive  his  mes- 
sage from  men  as  a  source,  nor  through  any  man  as  a 
channel,  nor  at  the  hands  of  any  man  as  a  teacher;  but 
it  came  to  him  through  the  revelation  of  Jesus  Christ. 
Here  he  stands  immovably  planted  on  the  solid  ground 
of  a  personal  apprehension  of  the  risen  Lord. 


Thessalonians  and  Galatians  51 

Polemical  Section 

Chapters  three  and  four  are  taken  up  with  defending 

the  doctrine  of  grace  over  against  the  vicious  leaven  of 
Jewish  legalism  set  to  work  in  their  midst  by  the  er- 
rorists.  The  argument  of  this  section  is  clear  and 
cogent.  He  runs  the  whole  gamut  of  proof;  he  appeals 
to  the  facts  of  their  conversion,  the  word  of  Scripture, 
the  history  of  Abraham,  the  analogy  of  human  institu- 
tions, and  the  nature  of  faith  itself.  The  whole  sum 
and  substance  of  this  section  goes  to  show  that  law  can 
never  be  the  last  word  God  has  for  men.  Sinai  is  not 
a  finality;  it  is  a  temporary  halting  place  on  the  road 
to  Calvary.  Slavery  must  give  way  to  sonship.  Law 
fulfills  its  function  when  it  brings  us  face  to  face  with 
our  need  of  Christ;  and  his  conclusion  is  that  reversion 
from  Christian  freedom  and  the  spiritual  deliverance 
which  it  brings  is  to  "fall  from  grace"  and  to  become 
entangled  in  a  yoke  of  bondage  all  the  more  grievous. 
No  wonder  Paul  rages  at  times  against  those  who  had 
perverted  his  children;  no  wonder  he  chides  these  most 
severely;  no  wonder  at  times  he  scathingly  satirizes 
their  folly;  no  wonder  he  beseeches  them  with  tears; 
no  wonder  this  letter  drips  with  his  heart's  blood  and 
is  surcharged  with  the  militant  spirit  of  this  defender 
of  the  faith  as  no  other  that  has  dropped  from  his  pen. 

Practical  Section 

In  chapters  five  and  six  Paul  gives  us  the  heart  of  the 
gospel  as  practically  applied  in  Christian  conduct.  The 
keynote  of  the  gospel  is  freedom.  But  it  delivers  us 
from  the  bondage  of  law  that  it  may  put  us  in  subjection 
to  the  bondage  of  love.  It  is  in  these  paragraphs  that 
the  real  gospel  is  seen.  "Love  one  another,"  "Walk  by 
the  Spirit,"  "Forgive  one  another,"  "Bear  each  other's 
burdens,"  "Be  generous,"  "Do  good" — these  are  the  per- 
manent proofs  of  the  Christian  faith.  Here  it  is  that 
Christians  of  all  climes  and  centuries  have  fed  on  those 
great  principles  that  have  enabled  them  to  bring  forth 


52  The  Stonj  of  the  New  Testament 

abundantly  the  fruit  of  the  Spirit  and  have  ever  had 
presented  to  them  the  highest  ideal  of  Christian  char- 
acter. 

Small  wonder  is  it  that  this  short  letter  has  ever  been 
the  bulwark  of  Protestantism,  the  banner*  of  evangelical 
freedom  that  all  the  great  spirits  have  followed.  No 
wonder  Luther  declared  that  he  was  betrothed  to  it  and 
called  it  his  Catherine  von  Borah. 

The  world  could  afford  to  lose  many  of  its  libraries, 
and  the  Church  could  afford  to  shelve  many  of  its  creeds 
and  conciliar  pronouncements,  but  both  would  be  woe- 
.fully  impoverished  by  the  loss  of  this  precious  docu- 
ment;  for  this  is  the  ever-flowing  fountain  to  which 
the  thirsty  souls  of  men  will  ever  come  and,  drinking  of 
its  pure  waters,  will  rise  refreshed  and  go  forth  em- 
boldened to  stand  fast  in  the  liberty  wherewith  Christ 
did  set  them  free. 


Thought  Questions 

1.  Where  and  when  did  the  New  Testament  have  its 
birth,  and  what  were  the  earliest  of  its  writings? 

2.  Illustrate  the  two  points  that  must  be  considered 
as  introductory  to  a  consideration  of  the  writings  of 
Paul — namely,  their  literary  quality  and  their  mission- 
ary motive. 

3.  Trace  upon  the  map  and  get  clearly  fixed  in  memory 
Paul's  three  great  missionary  journeys. 

4.  Into  what  four  groups  are  the  thirteen  letters  of 
Paul  divided? 

5.  What  are  the  chief  teachings  of  the  first  letter  to 
the  Thessalonian  Church? 

6.  What  is  the  design  of  the  second  letter  to  the 
Thessalonians? 

7.  What  is  the  subject  of  controversy  in  the  letter  to 
the  Galatians? 

8.  What  two  principal  views  of  the  date,  place  of  writ- 
ing, and  location  of  the  Church  addressed  in  the  letter 
to  the  Galatians  are  held? 

9.  Give  an  analysis  of  the  letter  to  the  Galatians,  brief- 
ly outlining  the  matter  of  each  of  its  three  principal 
parts. 

10.  With  what  two  great  political  documents  may  we 
compare  the  letter  to  the  Galatians? 


IV.    THE  EPISTLES   TO  THE   CORINTHI- 
ANS AND  TO  THE  ROMANS 


Passages  for  Daily  Readings 

Sunday.— Faul  at  Corinth.  Acts  18:  1-21;  20:  1-6; 
1  Corinthians  2:  1-5;  6:  9-11. 

Monday. — A  Plea  for  Christian  Unity.  1  Corinthians 
1:  10-31. 

Tuesday. — Some  Rebukes.  1  Corinthians  5:1-8;  6: 
1-8,  12-20. 

Wed?iesday.— The  Calling  and  Character  of  the  Chris- 
tian Minister.    2  Corinthians  4:  1-18;  5:  11-6:  13. 

Thursday. — Paul's  Providential  Way  to  Rome.  Ro- 
mans 1:  8-15;   15:  22-26;  Acts  25:  6-12;  28:  16-30. 

Friday. — The  Spiritual  Gospel  Triumphant.  Romans 
8. 

Saturday. — The  Golden  Fruits  of  Grace  in  Practical 
Living.     Romans  12. 


Introduction 

No  portion  of  the  New  Testament  is  fraught  with 
more  interest  to  the  "Church  at  large  or  is'  more  thrill- 
ing in  the  fascination  it  has  for  the  individual  read- 
er than  Paul's  letters  to  Corinth,  the  metropolis  of 
Greece,  and  to  Rome,  the  "Mistress  of  the  World." 
The  very  fact  that  he  should  have  had  the  occasion 
or  the  daring  to  address  either  city  is  in  itself  well- 
nigh  a  miracle  in  the  world  of  literary  venture;  but 
when  we  pass  from  the  bare  fact  to  the  form  and  mat- 
ter of  these  documents,  we  are  scarcely  less  than  as- 
tounded at  the  marvelous  revelations  these  letters  make 
as  to  the  writer  himself.  For  it  is  in  these  matchless 
writings  that  we  seem  to  get  somewhat  into  the  neigh- 
borhood of  the  greatness  of  the  apostle  to  the  Gentiles. 
Here  we  see  as  never  before  so  clearly  his  compre- 
hensive grasp  of  Christianity  as  a  world  force  both  from 
the   standpoint  of   its   social   application    (First   Corin- 

(53) 


54  The  Stoii/  of  the  New  Testament 

thians)  and  from  its  being  the  key  to  the  philosophy  of 
history  (Romans).  And  not  only  so,  but,  so  far  as  the 
apostle's  own  character  is  concerned,  with  all  that  may 
be  gathered  elsewhere,  one  has  hardly  got  acquainted 
with  the  many  variant  phases  of  his  wonderfully  com- 
plex personality  till  one  has  studied  most  carefully  what 
has  come  down  to  us  under  the  caption  of  Second 
.Corinthians.  For  this  is  indeed  the  most  personal  of  all 
of  Paul's  writings.  Here  we  have  the  heart  of  the  man 
laid  bare  to  the  gaze  of  both  friend  and  foe  alike;  here 
we  see  the  surgings  of  his  impetuous  soul  as  nowhere 
else;  here  we  hear  his  sighs  and  groans  and  rasping 
sarcasm  and  jubilant  notes  of  joy— and  all  through  we 
meet  with  passages  that  have  been  penned  in  his  heart's 
blood.  This  Corinthian  and  Roman  correspondence  may 
fitly  be  studied  together  under  the  title  of  "Letters  to 
and  from  Corinth,"  and  it  is  this  word  "Corinth"  that  is 
the  word  of  emphasis.  We  cannot  understand  the 
Corinthian  epistles  save  in  the  light  of  the  conditions 
of  their  recipients.  Nor  can  we  understand  the  Roman 
letter  in  certain  of  its  great  sections  save  as  we  take 
our  place  by  the  side  of  Paul  in  Corinth  and  literally 
see  him  draw  his  pen  sketch  of  human  depravity  con- 
tained in  the  first  and  second  chapters  of  that  immortal 
work,  and  so  understand  how  it  is  that  upon  the  dark 
background  of  human  need  he  flings  this  glorious  mas- 
terpiece of  divine  sufllciency.  We  take  up  these  writ- 
ings, so  far  as  we  can,  in  their  chronological  order. 

Paul  at  Corinth 

Unfortunately,  the  critics  have  not  yet  entirely  cleared 
up  the  confusion  that  hangs  over  Paul's  contact  with 
Corinth.  No  event  was  more  epochal  in  his  life  nor 
more  significant  in  the  development  of  his  gospel  and 
its  application  to  human  conditions  than  his  entrance, 
about  50  A.D.,  into  the  Graeco-Roman  capital.  This 
great  city,  along  with  Athens,  Alexandria,  and  Tarsus, 
stood   in   the   forefront  as  the  exponent   of  Greek   life 


'orinthidus  aiid  Nohkuis 


55 


and   thought.     In  B.C.   146   the  Roman  Mummlus   had 
destroyed  old  Corinth.     But  the  natural  situation  was 
too  inviting  to  be  left  long  unused,  so  just  one  century 
later  Julius  Caesar  had  refounded  the  city  and  given  it 
very  largely  over  to  his  veterans.     However,  in  Paul's 
time  Greek  influence  was  fairly  dominant,  at  least  in 
commercial  and  cultural  and,  to  a  large  extent,  in  "re- 
ligious circles.    At  any  rate,  Paul  early  saw  in  this  city, 
formerly  called  the  "Eye  of  Greece,"  a  strategic  center 
for    the    intrenchment    of    Christianity.      His    entrance, 
however,  was  not  propitious.     He  had  been  driven  out 
from  Thessalonica  and  Berea;  he  had  had  scant  success 
in  Athens;  and  in  this  frame  of  mind,  oppressed  by  per- 
secution and  depressed  by  a  sense  of  failure,  he  came 
to  this  most  wickedly  corrupt  city  known  in  the  whole 
range  of  the  Roman  world.     Not  only  is  this  tragic  fact 
borne  in  upon  us  as  we  read  his  letters  to  them,  but  the 
secular  literature  of  that  day  bankrupts  language  in  its 
effort  to   depict  the  unutterable  depravity  of  this  old- 
time  cesspool  of  sin.    But  the  daring  heart  of  the  brave 
apostle    ventured    into    even   this    mouth    of   hell;    and 
though  for  a  time  the  sight  and  the  strength  of  Satan 
forced  him  to  falter,  in  the  end  Christ's  presence  cheered 
him,  and  he  was  constrained  by  the  love  of  his  Lord  to 
spend  something  like  a  year  and  a  half  there  gathering 
into  the  fold  of  Christian  fellowship  many  of  the  peo- 
ple whom  God  had  in  that  city.     At  the  conclusion  of 
this  period  Gallio,  the  brother  of  Seneca,  came  into  of- 
fice  as   Proconsul   of  Achaia;    and   the   Jews,   doubtless 
hoping  that  he  would  be  glad  to  curry  favor  with  them, 
stirred   up   persecution  against  Paul.     But  Gallio  with 
true  Roman  scorn  refused  to  meddle  at  all  with  what  he 
regarded    as    the    petty    quarrel    of   a    set    of    religious 
fanatics,  and  so  drove  them  out  of  court.     Paul  stayed 
some  days  longer  and  then  set  sail  for  Sj'^ria  in  company 
with  Priscilla  and  Aquila,  with  whom  he  had  made  his 
home  on  his  arrival  and  whom  he  had  doubtless  gath- 
ered  in   as   some   of  the   first   fruits   of  the   wonderful 
harvest  of  that  ripe  and  broad-extending  field. 


^G  The  Story  of  the  New  Testament 

The  Corinthian  Corresiwndence 

This  much  with  regard  to  Paul's  first  or  foundation 
visit  to  Corinth  is  fairly  certain.  But  when  we  take  up 
the  matter  of  his  subsequent  contact,  either  through 
letter  or  visit,  we  at  once  meet  with  much  perplexity. 
One  of  the  most  satisfactory  outlines,  at  least  to  this 
writer,  seems  to  be  that  arrived  at  by  the  combination 
and  comparison  of  various  data  supplied  by  the  letters 
we  have.  As  this  is  ready  to  hand,  we  shall  tabulate  the 
references  and  let  the  reader  draw  his  own  conclusions. 

And  first  as  to  Paul's  letters  to  this  Church.  How 
many  times  did  he  address  communications  to  them? 
The  answer  to  this  question  is  supplied  by  the  corre- 
spondence we  have.  If  we  refer  to  our  First  Corin- 
thians 5:  9,  we  there  read:  "I  wrote  to  you  in  my  letter 
t9  have  no  company  with  fornicators."  This  they  had 
evidently  misunderstood,  and  from  Paul's  subsequent 
sentences  we  infer  that  they  had  willfully  twisted  his 
words.  Now,  this  characterization  does  not  apply  to 
the  letter  in  which  the  words  stand.  Consequently  we 
infer  that  our  First  Corinthians  is  not  Paul's  first  let- 
ter to  that  Church.  In  other  words,  a  few  months  sub- 
sequent to  his  first  visit  he  had  occasion  to  write  to 
them,  rebuking  them  for  their  dallying  with  the  sin  so 
rampant  in  their  city.  This  letter  has  been  lost  en- 
tirely, unless  a  stray  leaf  from  it  has  survived  in  Sec- 
ond Corinthians  6:  14-7:  1.  By  turning  to  this  passage 
any  one  can  see  that  it  violently  breaks  the  connection 
between  6:  13  and  7:  2,  and  its  contents  answer  admi- 
rably the  description  Paul  gives  of  his  former  communi- 
cation. So  from  this  our  First  Corinthians  should  be 
Second  Corinthians.  But  this  is  not  all  with  regard  to 
the  letters.  If  we  turn  to  our  Second  Corinthians  7:  8, 
9,  we  see  there  a  reference  to  a  letter  which  Paul  wrote 
that  caused  them  great  grief;  and  if  we  turn  to  chapter 
2:  3,  4,  we  are  there  told  that  it  was  written  in  great 
grief  and  through  many  tears  on  the  part  of  Paul. 
Wliat  letter  is  this?    Certainly  not  the  "previous"  letter, 


CorinthUuis  and  Konians  57 

nor  our  First  Corinthians,  nor  even  our  Second  Corin- 
thians, so  far  as  its  major  part  is  concerned.  But  there  is 
a  section  in  our  second  letter  (chapters  10:  1-13:  10)  the 
contents  and  tone  of  which  are  entirely  out  of  keeping 
with  the  rest  of  the  epistle,  and  many  there  are  who 
find  here  a  part  at  least  of  what  we  will  call  the  "pain- 
ful" letter,  otherwise  lost  to  us.  So  that  in  the  corre- 
spondence that  has  survived  between  Paul  and  this 
Church  there  must  have  passed  at  least  four  letters; 
and  it  is  possible  that  we  have,  in  addition  to  two 
entire  letters  (the  second  and  fourth),  excerpts  from 
two  others,  the  first  and  third. 

In  like  manner  by  reference  to  the  visits  reported 
in  this  correspondence.  There  was  one,  the  "founda- 
tion" visit  referred  to  in  First  Corinthians  2:  1,  and 
there  is  the  intended  visit  referred  to  in  Second  Corin- 
thians 13 :  1.  This  last  is  referred  to  as  "the  third,"  hence 
there  must  have  been  another  which  Acts  does  not  men- 
tion. It  is  hinted  at  very  early  in  Second  Corinthians 
2:  1,  where  he  says:  "I  made  up  my  mind  that  I  would 
not  come  again  to  you  in  sorrow."  It  was  during  this 
visit  that  Paul's  words,  here  and  elsewhere,  seem  to  in- 
dicate that  he  was  forced  to  submit  to  gross  personal  in- 
sult at  the  hands  of  some  one  man  whose  rebellion 
against  his  authority  he  was  unable  to  quell,  and  so  the 
outcome  of  this  visit  was  defeat  for  the  apostle.  It  is  not 
possible  to  d*ecide  whether  this  visit  antedated  our  first 
letter  or  succeeded  it.  My  own  opinion  is  that  it  suc- 
ceeded this  letter  and  was  itself  succeeded  by  the 
"painful"  letter,  part  of  which  we  find  in  the  last  four 
chapters  of  our  Second  Corinthians.  So  that  our  con- 
struction of  Paul's  contact,  both  epistolary  and  personal, 
with  this  city  can  be  seen  in  the  following  tabulation: 

1.  The  foundation  visit.     (Acts  18:  1.) 

2.  The  letter  referred  to  in  First  Corinthians  5:  9,  a 
leaf  of  which  we  may  read  in  Second  Corinthians  6:  14- 
7:  1. 

3.  His  contact  with  "those  of  Chloe's  household"  (1 
Cor.  1:  11)  and  the  deputation  consisting  of  Fortunatus, 


r>S  Tlic  Storij  (jj  the  Xcic  Testam-cut 

Stephanas,  and  Achaicus  (1  Cor.  16:  17),  who  doubtless 
brought  to  him  a  letter  of  inquiry,  and  this  is  the  oc- 
casion on  which  he  writes  our  First  Corinthians. 

4.  The  "painful"  visit  paid  quickly  to  bring  about 
unity  with  regard  to  some  flagrant  breach  of  discipline. 
This  ended  disastrously  for  the  apostle,  and  he  was 
forced  to  withdraw  baffled. 

5.  The  letter  written  in  tears  and  grief,  part  of  which 
we  have  in  Second  Corinthians  10:  1-13:  10. 

6.  The  final  letter  of  our  series,  Second  Corinthians 
1-9,  written  especially  to  commemorate  Paul's  thanks- 
giving over  the  happy  outcome  of  affairs,  to  acquaint 
them  with  the  reasons  for  his  change  of  plans,  and  to 
give  them  directions  concerning  the  collection  he  was 
in  process  of  taking  for  the  Jewish  Christians  in  Jeru- 
salem. 

7.  The  final  visit,  when  he  stays  three  month's  and 
writes  Romans.     (Acts  20:  3.) 

So  that,  broadly  stated,  the  real  reason  for  all  this 
correspondence  with  Corinth  is  seen  to  lie  largely  in  the 
fact  that  Paul  and  this  people  were  at  outs,  or,  in  plain 
terms,  had  a  quarrel  on.  In  no  single  instance  do  we 
see  a  fulfillment  on  such  a  splendid  scale  of  the  old- 
time  saying  that  the  wrath  of  man  shall  praise  God  as 
right  here.  Out  of  the  misinterpretations,  misunder- 
standings, misconstructions,  and  misconduct  of  all  these 
people  has  come  a  body  of  writing  that,  for  its  inspiring 
and  Christlike  contents,  has  no  parallel  in  the  whole 
range  of  the  New  Testament.  Take  away  from  us  First 
and  Second  Corinthians,  and  there  goes  the  psalm  of 
love  (1  Cor.  13),  the  joyful  paean  of  the  resurrection  (1 
Cor.  15),  Paul's  exultant  exposition  of  the  glory  of  the 
preacher's  calling  (2  Cor.  2:  14-4),  and  his  splendid  set- 
ting of  the  variegated  richness  of  the  manifold  expres- 
sion of  the  Spirit's  life  in  the  Church  (1  Cor.  12).  So 
the  wonder  of  revelation  continually  grows  the  more 
we  study.  Not  only  the  casual  and  the  commonplace, 
but  also  the  vicious  perversicms  and  even  criminal 
tendencies  of  men  frequently  become  the  fulcrum  upon 


Cor iiif Ilia n.s   and    /iOiraiis  51J 

which  the  leverage  of  inspiration  works.    We  must  turn 
now  briefly  to  notice 

The  First  Letter  to  the  Corinthians 
Place  and  Occasion  of  Writing 

The  place  is  told  us  very  clearly  in  chapter  16:  8.  It 
is  also  hinted  at  indirectly  in  chapter  15:  32.  The  sal- 
utation in  verse  19  of  chapter  16,  together  with  his  ref- 
erence to  ApoUos  in  verse  12  of  the  same  chapter,  taken 
in  connection  with  the  parallels  in  Acts  (chapters  18:  18, 
24,  and  19:  1),  fix  the  place  as  EpJiesus.  The  time  is 
doubtless  near  the  close  of  his  three  years'  stay  there 
(Acts  20:  31). 

The  occasion  of  the  writing  is  due  to  several  influ- 
ences. In  the  first  place,  it  is  due  to  a  letter  the  Corin- 
thians themselves  had  written  Paul,  asking  him  to  solve 
for  them  certain  perplexing  problems  that  had  arisen 
by  reason  of  their  efforts  to  apply  the  principles  of 
Christianity  to  their  lj§e  in  the  great  city  of  Corinth. 
This  consideration  is  based  upon  the  fact  that  from  the 
seventh  chapter  on  Paul  uses  as  a  formula  of  transition 
one  which  seems  to  indicate  that  he  is  taking  up  ques- 
tions in  order  (c/.  chapter  7:  1,  "now  concerning,"  and 
chapters  7;  25,  8:  1,  10:  1,  12:  1);  also  throughout  the 
letter  we  have  from  time  to  time  words  or  phrases 
which  seem  to  be  quoted  in  order  to  be  corrected  or 
refuted  (c/.  his  frequent  emphasis  on  the  word  "know" — 
e.  g ,  6:  3,  9,  15;  also  chapter  6:  12,  "All  things  are  law- 
ful, but  all  things  are  not  expedient"). 

But  there  was  another  provocation  for  this  letter. 
This  is  referred  to  in  chapter  1:  11,  where  "those  of 
Chloe"  tell  Paul  of  the  schisms  in  the  Church  there. 
Then,  too,  the  statements  made  by  Stephanas  and  his 
two  companions  may  have  called  attention  to  some  of 
the  points  discussed  in  the  letter.  Possibly  we  owe  the 
fifteenth  chapter  to  the  fact  that  these  three  told  Paul 
of  some  who  were  casting  suspicion  upon  a  fundamental 
fact  of  the  gospel.  Then,  finally,  there  was  one  thing 
they  were  guilty  of  for  which  no  special  channel  of  In- 


00  The  Stonj  of  the  New  Testament 

formation  was  necessary.     The  notorious  case  referred 
to  in  chapter  5  was  a  matter  of  common  report. 

All  these  conditions  confronted  the  apostle  as  he  took 
up  his  task  and  turned  to  his  amanuensis  to  dictate  one 
of  the  most  precious  documents  the  Christian  library 
contains.    If  this  be  the  occasion, 

The  Contents  of  This  Writing 
are  most  easily  grasped.  By  reason  of  the  fact  that 
Paul  follows  the  topical  method,  this  letter  is  one  of  the 
easiest  of  all  his  writings  to  read  continuously.  Again, 
by  reason  of  its  subject  matter  it  fastens  our  attention; 
for  it  discusses  not  abstract  theological  questions,  but 
practical,  everyday  problems  which  the  men  and  women 
of  that  community  have  to  conquer  or  succumb  to.  It 
is  hence  the  tragedy  of  real  life  that  holds  us  here. 
Then,  too,  the  spirit  in  which  this  master  teacher  goes 
about  to  solve  these  delicate  questions  is  indeed  the 
most  captivating  element  of  all.  For  here  we  see  him 
applying  his  great  and  ChristUke  maxim  of  being  all 
things  to  all  men  that  he  might  win  some  to  the  path 
of  peace  and  power. 

After  a  salutation  of  unusual  graciousness,  he  utters 
his  usual  paragraph  of  thanksgiving  and  then  plunges 
into  the  rebuke  called  for  hy  the  presence  of  factions 
in  their  midst.  This  is  characteristic  of  Paul.  He 
knows  that  what  the  Corinthian  Church  really  needs 
is  not  so  much  information  about  this  or  that  question 
of  conduct,  but  their  real  need  is  a  true  grasp  on  the 
fundamental  principle  of  the  gospel  message,  which 
means  unity  through  faith  in  and  love  for  Christ.  He 
therefore  castigates  them  severely  for  splitting  up  the 
body  of  Christ  and  then  goes  on  to  show  them  that 
real  Christian  discipleship  does  not  show  itself  in  rang- 
ing under  this  or  that  man  as  a  leader,  but  rather  as 
viewing  all  Christian  workers  as  instruments  and  Christ 
himself  as  living  and  superintending  Lord.  For  the 
gospel  is  not  a  philosophy  to  be  exploited  even  by  the 
eloquence  of  an  Apollos,  nor  yet  a  system  of  legalism  to 
be  perpetuated  under  the  mighty  name  of  Christ's  pil- 


Corintliktns  and  Romans  61 

lar  apostle  Peter,  nor  yet  a  mere  tacking  on  of  a  Pauline 
placard.  It  is  life  in  and  through  Christ,  and  therefore 
it  is  too  large  a  thing,  to  say  no  more,  to  be  covered  by 
the  canopy  of  one  man's  experience  or  explication.  This 
gives  Paul  a  background  on  which  he  throws  in  bold 
relief  his  conception  of  the  Christian  minister's  calling; 
though,  so  far  as  the  Corinthians  themselves  are  con- 
cerned, he  abates  not  a  whit  in  his  insistence  on  the 
fact  that  he,  and  he  alone,  is  their  spiritual  father— 
they  may  have  ten  thousand  tutors,  but  he  begat  them, 
and  as  proof  of  his  spiritual  paternity  he  claims  the 
right,  if  necessary,  to  come  to  them  "with  the  rod." 

The  second  topic  is  that  of  the  notorious  case  of  im- 
morality.  Paul  is  horrified  that  nothing  so  far  has  been 
done  to  the  offender.  He  therefore  calls  upon  them  for 
immediate  action  and  rebukes  them  for  their  flimsy  ex- 
cuse in  not  heeding  his  former  instructions.  He  calls 
for  summary  punishment  upon  the  wicked  man. 

A  third  unpleasant  duty  devolves  upon  Paul  before  he 
gets  to  their  letter.  He  feels  himself  forced  to  arraign 
them  severely  for  a  tendency  to  ''laicing,''  and  that,  too, 
before  heathen  judges.  This  he  deprecates  most  em- 
phatically and  calls  a  short  "Halt!"  to  this  pernicious 
practice. 

Coupled  with  this  capacity  for  litigiousness  was  a 
companion  vice — that  of  licentiousness.  This,  too,  is 
severely  condemned,  and  the  spiritual  principle  it  so 
grossly  violates  is  set  in  strong  light  when  Paul  declares 
as  against  all  heathen  practice,  especially  the  Greek 
attitude  of  his  day:  "Know  ye  not  that  your  body  is  the 
temple  of  the  Holy  Ghost?" 

He  is  now  ready  to  take  up  seriatim  the  questions 
their  letter  contained,  and  these  problems  are  social 
proMenitS.  The  problem  of  marriage  in  all  Its  various 
phases,  all  the  way  from  absolute  celibacy  to  absolute 
nondivorce,  including  those  who  act  voluntarily  and 
those  whose  actions  are  dominated  by  others;  the 
problem  of  eating  things  offered  to  idols,  a  burning  so- 
cial problem  for  the  new  converts  in  Corinth;  the  ques- 


0:3  The  IS  tort/  of  the  New  Testament 

tion  of  how  far  individual  right  is  to  be  surrendered 
for  the  public  good;  the  question  of  their  behavior  at 
the  Lord's  Supper;  the  matter  of  spiritual  gifts  and 
the  absolute  supremacy  of  love;  the  conduct  of  the 
public  worship — all  these  and  other  points  call  forth 
from  Paul's  head  and  heart  some  of  the  sanest,  the 
most  scientific,  and  at  the  same  time  most  sympathetic 
sentences  that  have  ever  fallen  upon  parchment.  This 
brings  us  through  the  fourteenth  chapter. 

The  fifteenth  chapter  of  First  Corinthians  constitutes 
an  epoch  in  the  history  of  human  thought,  establishes  a 
new  and  hitherto  unrivaled  record  in  Christian  elo- 
quence, and  marks  wiih  its  exultant  Ebenezer  the  most 
victorious  march  that  humanity  has  yet  made  in  its 
progress  toward  the  gates  of  life. 

The  final  chapter  concludes  with  directions  for  the 
collection,  plans  as  to  his  own  travels,  directions  as  to 
Timothy's  reception,  an  explanation  of  Apollos's  ab- 
sence, and  a  few  concluding  exhortations  and  saluta- 
tions; then  Paul  takes  the  pen  from  the  hand  of  his 
amanuensis,  signs  his  name,  and,  summing  up  all  the 
troubles  at  Corinth  under  one  general  cause  and  sum- 
ming up  the  great  cure  for  all  the  problems  in  one  great 
word,  he  closes  with,  "If  any  man  love  not  the  Lord, 
let  him  be  anathema." 

And  so  the  curtain  is  rung  down  upon  the  scene;  and 
doubtless  Paul  as  he  closed  this  letter  indulged  the  hope 
that  this  Church,  which  in  the  early  chapters  was  so 
rent  into  parties  and  all  through  the  epistle  Is  so  per- 
plexed and  tortured  by  vexing  questions  of  creed  and 
conduct,  would  be  fused  into  unity  through  the  com- 
pelling grace  of  Christ  and  forge  its  way  to  victory  over 
all  currents  of  opposition,  both  within  and  without,  un- 
der the  dynamic  of  the  love  that  gilded  the  barren  brow 
of  Golgotha  with  the  glory  of  the  sacrifice  that  redeems. 

TiiK  So-Callei)  Second  Epistle  to  the  Corinthians 
A  Visit  to  Corinth  and  a  Rel)nff 

It  such  was  Paul's  dream,  he  had  a  rude  awakening. 
So  soon  was  his  dream  shattered  that  we  find  him  has- 


Corinthians  and  Romans  03 

tening  across  to  Corinth  in  person,  only  to  be  beaten 
away  in  defeat.  Some  man — possibly  of  the  so-styled 
Christ  party — had  successfully  withstood  his  authority, 
and  the  apostle's  heart  was  heavy.  His  righteous  in- 
dignation was  aroused,  his  soul  was  lashed  into  a  fury, 
and  he  penned  in  hot  haste  a  terrific  letter  that  doubt- 
less was  full  of  stinging  rebuke  to  his  wayward  chil- 
dren. We  can  get  a  partial  glimpse  of  this  in  chapters 
10:  1  and  13:  10  of  the  so-called  second  epistle.  This  is 
the  "painful"  letter,  or  the  great  invective,  as  some 
choose  to  call  it.  Into  this  Paul  heaped  all  the  scorn 
and  sarcasm  and  biting  satire  of  which  he  was  capable; 
but  passionate  pleading  is  here  too,  and  evident  humilia- 
tion and  contrition  of  spirit.  His  feelings  at  times 
transgress  all  the  bounds  of  both  logic  and  language, 
and  we  come  closer  to  a  bleeding  human  heart  in  these 
paragraphs  than  anywhere  else  in  literature.  He  hoped 
this  method  would  win  them  back  to  his  embrace;  he 
feared  that  his  hopes  might  again  go  astray.  He  sent 
it  by  Titus  and  waited  anxiously  and  feverishly  for  the 
result. 

.  The  result  came  while  he  was  in  Macedonia.  He  was 
in  such  a  state  of , excitement  that  he  could  not  engage 
in  missionary  work.  He  had  been  forced  into  illness 
well-nigh  unto  death  by  reason  of  his  tragic  suspense. 
The  news  of  their  change  of  front  to  him,  their  peni- 
tence, and  their  loyalty  is  so  gratifying  that  his  heart 
leaps  forth  in  sentences  which  at  times  are  exceedingly 
hard  to  follow;  but  the  inescapable  impression  is  that 
all  the  past  uncertainty  and  unfriendliness  is  gone, 
and  gone  forever  (2  Cor.  1:  1-14). 

He  hastens  now  to  apologize  for  any  seeming  change 
of  plans.  He  launches  forth  into  a  vindication  of  this 
change  that  shows  it  was  the  outgrowth  of  concern  for 
them,  not  fear  on  his  part  (2  Cor.  1:  15-2).  He  then 
(chapters  3-6:  10)  elaborates  his  conception  of  the 
preacher's  calling,  and  in  these  sections  we  have  the 
most  splendid  description  of  ministerial  inspiration  and 
obligation  that  literature  knows.     Then  come.  In  chap- 


04  Tlic  Stonj  of  the  New  Testament 

ter  7,  further  explanations  and  confessions  of  his  love 
for  them.  Chapters  8  and  9  go  minutely  into  the  details 
of  the  coming  collection,  with  arguments  ranging  all  the 
way  from  the  example  of  the  Macedonians  to  the  ex- 
ample of  the  Master,  culminating  in  the  characteristic 
Pauline  fashion  of  taking  the  collection  at  the  foot  of 
the  cross  (chapter  9:  15). 

The  theory  we  hold  regards  the  last  three  verses  of 
chapter  13  as  the  final  verses  of  Paul's  fourth  and,  so 
far  as  ve  know,  last  communication  with  Corinth.  How 
fitting  that  this  correspondence — so  grievous,  so  sharp, 
so  bitter  at  times — should  conclude  with  the  words  of 
the  apostolic  benediction,  the  words  which  the  con- 
sciousness of  Christendom  has  decided  are  the  fittest  to 
use  when  Christian  brethren  separate  for  a  season! 

The  Epistle  to  the  Romans 

• 

Soon  after  writing  our  Second  Corinthians  Paui  made 
his  way  through  Macedonia  and  came  to  Lower  Greece, 
visiting  Corinth  for  the  third  time  and  spending  three 
months  with  his  now  reconciled  flock.  It  was  during 
this  time  that  he  wrote  the  letter  to  the  Roman  Church, 
the  biggest  piece  of  literary  work  he  ever  did.  This 
masterpiece  of  literature  is  too  large  to  handle  thor- 
oughly in  our  space;  but  we  can  at  least  get  the  setting, 
and  this  will  go  far  toward  giving  us  some  insight  into 
its  meaning. 

Introduction 

To  begin  with,  Paul  had  never  been  to  Rome,  though 
the  magnetism  of  the  world's  metropolis  had  been  draw- 
ing him  ever  since  the  days  of  his  Ephesian  pastorate 
(see  Acts  19:  21).  He  had  tried  oftentimes  to  get  to 
them,  as  he  himself  declares  (Rom.  1:  13),  but  for  one 
cause  or  another  had  been  hindered.  Though  he  had 
not  founded  the  Church  there,,  he  felt  sure  that  if  he 
could  come  in  contact  with  them  a  mutual  benefit  would 
ensue.  So  he  is  bending  all  efforts  to  pass  by^  them  on 
his  way  to  Spain  (see  chapter  15:  22-24).    But  he  is  now 


Corinthians  and  Romans  65 

going  the  other  way,  being  bound  for  Jerusalem  to  carry 
the  ahns — the  "collection"  of  the  Corinthian  epistles — 
to  the  Christians  at  Jerusalem.  He  does  not  know  what 
the  outcome  of  this  visit  will  be.  He  fears  that  evil 
may  befall  him,  especially  as  he  had  been  the  recipient 
of  a  sort  of  prophecy  to  this  effect.  So  he  calls  upon 
them  for  their  prayers,  and  can  only  hope  that  the  se- 
quel to  his  journey  will  be  a  happy  one. 

Here,  then,  in  this  fifteenth  chapter  is  the  place  to  get 
the  mental  and  spiritual  condition  of  the  apostle.  This 
gives  us  the  psychological  background  for  the  writing. 
He  doubtless  felt  that  this  might  be  his  last  opportunity 
to  set  before  the  minds  of  men  his  conception  of  Christ 
and  the  gospel.  He  would  embrace  it  for  all  it  was 
worth.  He  would  direct  the  message  to  Rome,  and  so 
secure  for  it  a  strategic  center.  He  would  plan  more 
comprehensively  and  execute  more  thoroughly  than  ever 
before.  Whether  this  is  absolutely  true  or  not,  it  remains 
a  solid  fact  that  on  all  hands  this  letter  is  regarded  as 
one  of  the  mountain  peaks  of  human  thought.  It  has 
been  styled  "the  cathedral  of  Christian  doctrine,"  "the 
profoundest  book  in  existence,"  "the  greatest  philosophy 
of  history  ever  penned,"  "the  compendium  of  Christian 
theology."  Without  vouching  for  the  absolute  truth  of 
any  of  these  characterizations,  we  can  at  least  conclude 
that  a  writing  which  calls  forth  such  plaudits  as  these 
is  no  ephemeral  production  and  well  merits  our  earnest 
study.    We  note  at  the  outset  that 

This  Epistle  Is  Not  Called  Forth  "by  Any  Condition  Pre- 
sumably in  the  Roman  Community 

In  other  words,  Paul  is  not  provoked  into  writing. 
This,  then,  is  a  positive  message,  and  we  are  to  look 
for  more  continuous  and  logical  treatment  of  the  sub- 
jects in  hand,  simply  because  the  writer  is  not  so  much 
under  the  necessity  of  stopping  to  make  the  local  appli- 
cation. Hence  in  this  letter  we  lose,  it  may  be,  the  in- 
terest of  the  frequent  "local  hits"  with  which  the  Co- 
rinthian and  Galatian  correspondence  abounds,  but  at 
5 


()()  The  Story  of  the  New  Testament 

the  same  time  our  author  is  able  to  gain  a  momentum 
and  unity  that  nowhere  else  appear. 

The  contents  of  the  epistle  may  he  hroadly  looked  at 
under  four  divisions,  the  three  breaks  being  at  the  first 
verse  of  chapters  9  -and  12  and  the  fourteenth  verse 
of  chapter  15. 

The  first  division,  extending  through  the  first  eight 
chapters,  is  the  positive  section,  wherein 

Paul  Elaborates  His   Conception   of  Christianity   as   a 
Divine  Provision  for  the  World's  Redemption. 

In  the  first  three  chapters  he  shows  the  necessity  for 
some  divine  provision  growing  out  of  the  palpably  lost 
condition  of  both  Gentile  and  Jewish  elements,  since 
neither  has  attained  redemption,  but  all  have  sinned  and 
come  short  of  the  glory  of  God.  The  whole  world  lies 
guilty  before  God.  Both  streams  of  humanity — those 
within  the  pale  of  Revelation  and  those  without — have 
Law;  but  in  both  cases  Law  brings  not  life,  but  the  full 
experience  of  sin,  and  this  ultimates  in  death. 

With  chapter  3,  verse  21,  begins  Paul's  description 
and  interpretation  of  God's  method  of  making  men 
righteous  under  the  revelation  of  his  love  and  power 
in  Christ.  He  shows  that  this  is  no  new  method,  but 
that  from  the  beginning  of  his  personal  relation  to  men 
God's  life  to  them  has  been  mediated  through  the  only 
channel  by  which  persons  can  have  any  stable  union 
and  communion — namely,  trust.  This  is  illustrated 
from  the  case  of  Abraham,  and  he  is  set  forth  as  the 
type  of  true  Christian  experience  by  reason  of  the  fact 
that  when  God  made  a  promise  to  him  he  believed  it. 
Upon  no  other  basis  than  a  basis  of  confident  trust  can 
friendship  be  fostered,  hence  the  logic  of  Paul's  position. 
The  man  that  will  not  trust  God  in  view  of  what  Christ 
has  revealed  is  absolutely  beyond  the  pale  of  even  God's 
power  to  justify.  But  when  a  moral  personality  reacts 
favorably  upon  this  revelation  of  God's  character  and 
attitude,  the  man  becomes  united  with  Christ  and  so 
becomes   a   partaker  of   the   divine   nature  and   a  par- 


Corinthians  and  Romans  67 

ticipant  in  the  divine  righteousness.  It  is  no  fiction, 
legal  or  theological,  that  Paul  is  talking  of,  for  the 
problem  is  no  imaginary  thing.  God's  task  is  to  solve 
the  problem  of  how  to  remain  righteous  and  at  the  same 
time  make  righteous  an  unrighteous  man.  In  other 
words,  God's  task  is  a  moral  task,  not  a  mechanical 
or  a  mythical  one.  He  must  not  infringe  upon  man's 
freedom,  nor  yet  insult  his  moral  sense,  and  yet  he 
must  transform  his  nature.  So  he  must  reveal  himself 
in  such  a  light  as  to  call  forth  our  trust  and  love,  for 
unless  we  are  saved  morally  we  are  not  saved  at  all. 
This  God  does  in  Christ,  and  the  fifth  chapter  is  de- 
voted to  a  delineation  of  the  joyful  fruits  of  this  experi- 
ence in  its  individual  relation  (verses  1-11)  and  in  its 
racial  application  (verses  12-21). 

Chapter  6  constitutes  Paul's  protest  against  antino- 
mianism,  which  has  ever  been  the  dark  shadow  that  has 
followed  on  the  footsteps  of  the  gospel  of  grace.  He 
shows  that  while  the  gospel  spells  freedom  from  law  and 
sin,  it  spells  also  the  bondage  of  a  love  far  more  binding 
than  all  else  besides. 

Chapters  7  and  8  constitute  the  7ie  plus  ultra  of  scien- 
tific analysis  of  spiritual  phenomena.  Here  the  apostle 
brings  out  clearly  the  failure  as  well  as  the  function 
of  law,  shows  its  real  place  in  the  divine  economy, 
elucidates  for  us  the  new  law  of  the  spirit  of  life  in 
Christ  Jesus,  shows  us  the  transcendent  superiority  of 
the  Spirit-filled  life,  and  closes  by  revealing  to  our 
gaze  the  glorious  spectacle  of  a  Spirit-thrilled  universe. 
Christ  has  vindicated  all  cosmic  travail  in  what  he  does 
for  and  through  men.  Even  dumb  nature  proclaims  that 
she  is  justified  for  all  the  reign  of  "tooth  and  claw," 
and  encompassing  all— God  and  men  and  the  universe 
itself — there  spans  the  triumphant  arch  of  Christian 
confidence  gleaming  in  the  golden  radiance  of  the  vie- 
tor's  shout:  "All  things  work  together  for  good  to  them 
that  love."  The  positive  section  of  the  epistle  closes 
here;  God's  task  has  been  completed.  He  has  taken 
the  unrighteous  Gentile,  sunk  in  the  shameless  pits  of 


68  The  Story  of  the  New  Testament 

Corinthian  abomination,  and  the  falsely  righteous  Jew, 
pluming  himself  on  his  man-made  moral  conventions, 
and  out  of  both  he  has  developed  really  righteous  men, 
and  through  the  processes  of  his  gracious  Spirits 
training  has  made  them  candidates  for  celestial  com- 
pany. 

This,  then,  is  the  scope  of  Paul's  teaching  positively 
stated;  this  is  the  power  of  the  gospel  as  he  understands 
it— namely,  to  take  a  man  out  of  the  pit  of  corrup- 
tion  in  the  first  chapter  and  place  him  in  the  eighth 
amid  the  campanionship  of  the  holy,  where  nothing  in 
heaven  or  earth  or  bell  can  separate  him  from  the  love 
of  God  that  has  been  demonstrated  to  the  world  in 
Christy 

The  second  grand  division  of  Romans,  extending 
through  the  ninth,  tenth,  and  eleventh  chapters,  is 
rather  difficult  to  understand,  unless  we  regard  it  as 
Paul's  effort  to  meet 

A  Historical  Situation 

that  loomed  large  in  his  day.  This  situation  was  the 
undeniable  fact  that  the  Jewish  nation  as  a  nation  had 
not  entered  into  the  enjoyment  of  the  Messianic  king- 
dom. The  Jew  argued:  "In  view  of  this  obvious  fact — 
namely,  the  exclusion  of  Israel  of  old  from  the  current 
of  the  divine  grace — either  Gcd  has  been  unfaithful  to 
his  promises  made  to  our  fathers,  or  else  the  Messianic 
message  you  are  delivering  is  false."  As  a  sequel  to 
his  logic  the  unbelieving  Jew  would  take  the  former 
horn  of  the  dilemma  and  say:  "I  will  not  entertain  the 
idea  that  God  is  unfaithful;  therefore  I  repudiate  in 
toto  your  claims  for  your  gospel." 

It  is  to  meet  this  capital  criticism  of  Christianity  as 
the  final  form  which  the  revelation  of  God  assumes  that 
Paul  enterprises  this  discussion.  It  is  not  necessary  to 
go  through  the  matter  in  detail;  the  three  stages  of  his 
argument  are  fairly  well  indicated  by  the  chapter  di- 
visions. In  chapter  9  Paul  disposes  of  the  Jewish  con- 
ception  that  God   has   made   any  hard-and-fast   promise 


Corinthians  and  Romans  GO 

or  bound  himself  in  any  way  that  would  militate 
against  the  exercise  of  his  sovereignty.  In  fact,  this 
has  been,  says  Paul,  the  only  method  of  the  divine  pro- 
cedure that  we  can  discover.  In  the  case  of  Abraham 
against  the  world,  in  the  case  of  Isaac  against  Ishmael, 
in  the  case  of  Jacob  against  Esau,  the  only  reason  we 
can  trace  is  God's  sovereign  choice.  And  so  of  the  na- 
tion itself  in  the  days  of  Moses  and  Pharaoh;  for  even 
here  it  is  the  divine  sovereignty,  not  human  merit,  that 
rules,  for  even  to  Moses  he  administers  a  rebuke  to 
eradicate  all  seeds  of  pride:  "I  will  exercise  mercy  on 
whomsoever  I  please  to  exercise  mercy." 

Thus  Paul  disposes  of  this  phase  of  the  matter.  The 
tenth  chapter  carries  us  into  another  realm — the  realm 
of  human  responsibility.  Here  it  is  that  Paul  finds  the 
real  answer  as  to  the  cause  of  the  exclusion  of  the 
whilom  chosen  race.  By  the  exercise  of  their  own  free- 
dom of  choice  and  the  exhibition  of  the  resisting  power 
of  their  wills  they  have  steeled  themselves  against  the 
approach  of  divine  grace,  and  so  upon  them  as  a  nation 
has  descended  a  moral  blindness,  and  wrath  has  fallen 
upon  them  in  signal  fury.  The  eleventh  chapter  is  the 
great  consolation  that  Paul  gets  as  he  looks  to  the 
future  and  discovers,  as  he  thinks,  the  divine  purpose 
ruling  and  overruling  in  all  this  matter  of  racial  elec- 
tion. The  past  of  the  Jewish  people  has  been  glorious; 
their  present  is  one  of  intense  gloom  and  sadness;  but 
their  future  is  radiant  with  promise.  Their  defection 
is  only  partial;  it  will  last  only  for  a  season;  and  in 
the  great  consummation  of  God's  purpose  among  the 
nations  all  their  devious  history  will  have  its  ultimate 
justification.  And  on  the  wings  of  this  mighty  faith 
Paul  soars  to  the  great  height  of  his  wonderful  climax 
at  the  conclusion  of  chapter  11. 

The  Hortatory  Section 

of  this  epistle  is  exceedingly  rich  in  spiritual  sugges- 
tiveness,  and  extends  from  the  beginning  of  chapter  12 
through  the  thirteenth  verse  of  chapter  15. 


70  The  Story  of  the  New  Testament 

The  Personal  Section 
The  concluding  paragraphs  of  this  chapter  are  devoted 
to  his  plans,  his  hopes,  and  his  fears.  Chapter  16  con- 
tains by  far  the  longest  list  of  personal  names  and  salu- 
tations we  have  from  Paul,  and  is  most  interesting  from 
the  number  of  specific  biographical  details  it  enshrines. 
The  concluding  paragraph  in  the  form  of  a  long  dox- 
ology  sums  up  the  main  points  of  the  writing,  just  as 
the  opening  verses  constitute  the  theme  of  the  discus- 
sion stated  in  advance.  In  this  case  Tertius  was  Paul's 
penman,  and  he  joins  with  others  in  saluting  the 
"saints  that  are  of  Caesar's  household." 


Thought  Questions 

1.  Describe  the  Corinth  of  Paul's  day  and  give  some 
account  of  Paul's  first  visit  to  the  city. 

2.  Recite  in  order  the  six  contacts  of  Paul  with 
Corinth,  whether  in  person  or  by  letter,  and  give  reason 
for  believing  these  to  be  proved. 

3.  Give  the  place  and  date  of  writing  of  First  Corin- 
thians and  give  your  reasons  for  believing  these  to  be 
correct. 

4.  What  called  forth  this  letter,  and  why  do  you  be- 
lieve that  it  was  thus  provoked? 

5.  What  rebukes  do  you  find  in  the  first  six  chapters? 
What  questions  are  answered  in  the  remaining  chap- 
ters?  What  two  great  passages  of  literature  do  you  find 
in  this  letter? 

6.  What  was  the  occasion  of  the  writing  of  Second 
Corinthians?.  What  portion  of  the  letter  as  we  have  it 
seems  to  have  been  taken  from  the  so-called  "painful" 
letter?    What  are  the  two  great  subjects  of  this  letter? 

7.  In  what  way  do  the  place  and  time  of  the  writing 
of  the  letter  to  the  Romans  fit  into  the  account  of  Paul's 
ministry  at  Corinth? 

8.  What  was  Paul's  personal  relation  to  the  Church 
at  Rome? 

9.  In  what  circumstance  does  the  letter  to  the  Romans 
differ  from  the  other  epistles  we  have  been  considering? 

10.  What  is  the  main  line  of  teaching  of  each  of  the 
four  major  divisions  of  the  letter  to  the  Romans? 


V.  PAUL'S  PRISON  CORRESPONDENCE 


Passages  for  Daily  Readings 

Sunday.— From  Corinth  to  Rome.  Acts  19:  21,  22;  20: 
1-6,  17-36;  21:  15,  27-33;  23:  11;  27:  1,  2;  28:  16-30. 

Monday. — The  Preeminence  of  Christ.  Colossians  1: 
9-23. 

Ttiesday. — Christ  the  Fullness.    Colossians  2 :  8-23. 

Wednesday. — God's  Inheritance  in  the  Saints.  Ephe- 
sians  1:  15-2:  10. 

Thursday. — The  Christian's  Walk.     Ephesians  5:  1-21, 

Friday.— T'kQ  Great  Motive  for  the  Work  of  Christ 
and  the  Consequence  for  Christians.    Philippians  2:  1-18. 

Saturday. — The  Requirements  of  Discipleship.  Philip- 
pians 3:  1-21. 


Introduction 

We  now  come  to  the  third  period  of  the  literary 
career  of  the  great  apostle  to  the  Gentiles.  The 
second  period  closed  with  Romans;  and  though  Paul 
was  to  some  extent  fearful  that  this  might  he  his 
last  writing,  in  the  providence  of  God  his  life  was 
spared.  And  though  his  external  range  of  activity  was 
thenceforth  much  limited,  still  the  output  of  his  ener« 
gies  at  this  time  tells  more  on  the  future  history  of 
the  Christian  movement  than  possibly  all  his  other 
labors  put  together. 

The  visit  to  Jerusalem  referred  to  in  the  Roman 
epistle  was  made,  but  Paul  was  arrested  there  and  car- 
ried thence  to  Csesarea,  where  he  was  detained  two 
years.  Thence  on  his  appeal  to  Caesar  he  was  deported 
to  Rome,  where  the  narrative  in  Acts  leaves  him  with 
the  significant  sentence:  "Preaching  the  kingdom  of 
God,  and  teaching  the  things  concerning  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ  with  all  boldness,  no  man  forbidding  him." 
Here  we  see  the  double  phase  of  the  apostle's  work 
while  under  watch  in  the  capital  city.  His  untiring 
spirit,   though    hedged    about   by   frowning   city   walls, 

(71) 


72  The  Story  of  the  New  Testament 

busied  itself  in  seeking  converts  among  the  soldiers, 
in  the  slums,  and  to  some  extent  pierced  into  the  circle 
of  the  palace  itself.  But  his  great  contribution  to 
Christianity  at  this  time  is,  of  course,  the  splendid  let- 
ters that  come  from  his  pen  in  answer  to  the  inquiries 
and  perplexities  of  his  Churches — some  of  them  far  re- 
moved in  space,  but  all  of  them  carried  still  on  the 
heart  of  their  loving  founder  and  pastor.  Of  these  let- 
ters, we  have  (probably  in  the  order  of  their  composi- 
tion) Colossians,  Philemon,  Ephesians,  and  Philippians. 
These  four  date  from  the  first  Roman  imprisonment; 
and  one  has  but  to  glance  at  any  one  of  them  to  see  the 
incalculable  debt  which  future  ages  were  to  owe  to  the 
hand  that  penned  them,  and  at  the  same  time  to  ap- 
preciate the  wonderful  providence  that  through  the 
gloom  of  a  Roman  prison  could  send  forth  such  a 
steady  stream  of  light  and  life  for  the  inspiration  of 
"ages  to  come."  We  shall  study  all  these  letters  in  this 
chapter  save  Philemon,  which,  being  strictly  private, 
may  be  thrown  with  those  to  Timothy  and  Titus. 

The  Epistle  to  the  Colossians 

Let  us  then  consider  first  the  Epistle  to  the  Colos- 
sians. Its  occasion,  its  teaching,  and  its  general  com- 
prehensiveness mark  it  as  one  of  Paul's  most  signifi- 
cant utterances. 

The  Occasion  of  Colossians 

Colosse  was  a  city  of  Asia  Minor,  on  the  banks  of 
the  Lycus  River.  Paul  himself,  it  seems,  had  never 
been  there  (2:  1),  but  in  all  probability  it  had  been 
evangelized  by  Epaphras  and  other  helpers  of  his  dur- 
ing his  long  pastorate  at  Ephesus.  At  any  rate,  he  was 
intensely  interested  in  the  Church  at  that  place  and 
thoroughly  cognizant  of  the  dangers  confronting  it.  It 
was  doubtless  through  the  report  of  Epaphras  (4:  12) 
that  Paul  got  news  of  the  special  dangers  that  were 
then  imminent.  The  territory  of  Asia  Minor  was  the 
common  meeting  ground  of  the  East  and  West  of  that 


Paul's  Prison  Correspondence  73 

day,  and  hence  all  sorts  of  opinions  were  rife,  especial- 
ly in  the  sphere  of  religious  thinking.  As  early  as  Acts 
20,  in  his  address  to  the  Ephesian  elders,  Paul  had  put 
himself  on  record  as  seeing  the  seeds  of  coming  heresy 
springing  up  in  the  bosom  of  the  Church  itself.  This 
fear  of  many  years'  standing  has  now  become  a  reality. 
Error  has  swooped  down  upon  his  brethren  and  ia 
threatening  to  undermine  their  faith  in  Christ  as  their 
all-sufficient  Saviour.  This  error,  as  we  see  from  the 
epistle  itself,  has  two  phases.  In  the  first  place,  there 
is  a  Judaic  element,  as  is  seen  positively  from  the  refer- 
ence to  "new  moons"  and  "Sabbaths"  (2:  16),  and  nega- 
tively from  Paul's  emphasis  on  the  necessity  for  spir^ 
itual  circumcision  as  contradistinguished  from  that  of 
the  mere  formal  sort  (2:  11).  The  second  element  in 
the  error  combated  is  more  vague,  but  seems  to  be  a 
sort  of  incipient  Gnostic  teaching  in  which  theosophic 
speculation,  shadowy  mysticism,  and  a  tendency  to  in- 
terpose certain  spiritual  agencies  between  God  and 
man  unite  to  the  detriment  of  the  clear  teaching  of 
the  gospel.  This  latter  phase  seems  to  dominate,  for  it 
is  given  greater  attention  in  the  letter. 

Two  characteristics  of  it  are  clear.  To  begin  with,  it 
was  a  species  of  intellectual  exclusiveness,  and  a  kind 
of  spiritual  aristocracy  was  implied  in  it  which  was 
wholly  foreign  to  the  spiritual  democracy  inculcated 
and  illustrated  by  Christ.  Hence  all  through  Colos- 
sians  we  find  Paul  contending  most  strenuously  for  the 
universality  of  the  Christian  message.  "Whom  we 
preach,  warning  every  man  and  teaching  every  man, 
that  we  may  present  every  man  perfect  in 
Christ"  (1:  28).  In  addition  to  being  an  intellectual 
aristocracy,  this  Gnostic  element  set  for  itself  the  prob^ 
lem  of  explaining  how  the  world  as  we  have  it  could 
come  from  God.  The  twofold  question  was,  "How  may 
we  account  for  creation?"  and,  "How  explain  the  exist- 
ence of  evil?"  The  second  question  was  answered  by 
saying  that  matter  is  essentially  evil,  and  hence  the 
larger   problem    is   the   first.     If   matter   is   essentially 


74  The  ^tory  of  tJic  New  Testament 

evil,  how  could  an  infinitely  holy  God  create  a  material 
universe?  To  bridge  the  chasm  between  infinite  holi- 
ness and  finite  evil,  the  fancy  of  these  teachers  con- 
ceived a  series  of  successive  emanations,  each  less  di- 
vine than  its  predecessor,  until  finally  Deity  had  be- 
come undivine  enough  to  come  in  contact  with  physical 
Imperfection.  This  chasm  the  thinkers  of  these  schools 
called  "the  fullness"  or  "void"  or  "pleroma."  "With  one 
sweep  Paul  closes  the  gap  between  God  and  the  uni- 
verse by  saying:  "It  pleased  God  that  in  him  [that  is, 
in  Christ]  should  all  the  fullness  dwell." 

But  there  was  a  practical  as  well  as  a  speculative 
side  to  this  false  teaching.  The  question  of  the  moral 
life  had  to  be  met,  and  for  the  most  part  asceticism, 
rigid  and  constant,  was  the  instant  prescription.  If 
matter  is  evil,  then  flagellation  of  the  body  ought  to 
bring  relief.  And  so  the  hard  logic  of  the  system,  if  at 
the  time  of  Paul  it  could  be  called  a  system,  entailed  a 
merciless  adherence  to  rigid  asceticism  which  had,  in- 
deed, "a  show  of  wisdom  in  will  worship  and  humility 
and  severity  to  the  body,  but  was  not  of  any  value 
against  the  indulgence  of  the  flesh."  And  so,  for  the 
Colossians  as  for  all,  asceticism  in  religion  led  to  de- 
spair. Both  speculatively  and  practically,  therefore, 
the  whole  thing  was  a  failure,  and  Paul  sets  about  to 
correct  its  fundamental  error.  This  he  does  by  insisting 
that  Christianity  holds 

Christ  as  the  Fullness  of  God 

There  are  three  great  phases  of  this  statement  that 
require  attention.  The  first  is  the  supremacy  of  Christ 
in  the  material  universe.  Here  (1:  16)  Paul  joins 
hands  with  John's  Gospel  and  the  Epistle  to  the  He- 
brews and  sets  forth  Christ  as  the  cause  of  creation 
itself.  "In  him  were  all  things  created."  No  need, 
then,  says  Paul,  for  the  Christian  to  get  tangled  up  in 
the  endless  chain  of  causes  implied  in  the  contention 
of  the  errorists,  for  the  one  simple  and  sublime  expla- 
nation of  the  cosmos  is  Christ.     However  difiicult  this 


Paul's  Prison  Correspondence  75 

may  be  for  our  modern  conceptions,  it  is  significant 
that  whenever  the  apostolic  age  speaks  on  this  point 
the  testimony  is  unanimous.  John  is  no  less  strong  in 
his  statement:  "All  things  were  made  through  him." 
The  unknown  writer  to  the  Hebrews  voices  the  same 
fundamental  conviction  When  he  asserts:  "By  whom 
also  he  made  the  worlds."  So  when  Paul  avers  of 
Christ  that  "all  things  have  been  created  through  him 
and  unto  him,  .  .  .  and  in  him  all  things  consist," 
let  us  not  think  that  we  are  dealing  with  an  individual 
idiosyncrasy,  but  rather  are  listening  to  the  unimpeach- 
able verdict  of  the  highest  and  deepest  Christian  specu- 
lation. The  material  universe  must  have  a  ground  or 
basal  explanation.  Its  fundamental  reason  is  that 
through  it  God  may  reveal  himself.  But  no  material 
universe,  however  huge  in  scale,  can  adequately  repre- 
sent God.  Only  God  can  reveal  God,  and  this  revela- 
tion  comes  in  the  person  of  Christ.  This  is  the  goal  of 
all  creation — namely,  that  God  may  express  himself  in 
the  highest  form  of  finite  existence.  This  highest  form 
is  man,  the  crown  of  all  material  creation.  Therefore 
Christ  is  the  cause  of  the  cosmos,  for  it  is  only  through 
creation  and  incarnation  that  God  can  be  adequately 
known  as  God. 

But  the  apostle  goes  a  stage  farther  in  his  argument. 
Christ  is  not  only  supreme  in  the  material  universe, 
he  is  also  supreme  in  >GofZ's  moral  creation.  He  is  the 
Head  of  the  body,  the  Church;  he  is  the  Medium 
through  whom  reconciliation  is  wrought  throughout  all 
the  ranges  of  moral  intelligences;  he  is  God's  eternal 
vindication  of  things  as  they  are  in  process  of  being 
brought  to  terms  of  peace  with  himself.  Christ  is  thus 
the  final  answer  to  all  the  questionings  of  the  human 
heart.  Long  before  Browning  phrased  it,  Paul  thought 
out  the  deep  meaning  of  that  statement  of  faith  which 
has  never  been  revised  nor  ever  needed  restatement: 

"The  acknowledgment  of  God  in  Christ,  accepted  by  thy 

reason. 
Solves  for  thee  all  questions  in  the  world  and  out  of  it." 


70  The  Story  of  the  New  Testament 

But,  further,  Christ,  if  he  be  supreme  in  the  material 
and  moral  spheres,  is  certainly  sufficient  for  all  the 
legitimate  demands  of  the  Christian  life.  Therefore 
the  warning:  "Take  heed  that  no  man  spoil  you  through 
his  philosophy  and  vain  deceit,  after  the  traditions  of 
men,  after  the  rudiments  of  the  world,  and  not  after 
Christ.  For  in  him  dwelleth  all  the  fullness  of  the  God- 
head bodily.  And  in  him  ye  are  made  full."  (2:  8-10.) 
Here  is  the  answer  Paul  would  give  to  all  those  subtle 
suggestions  which  indicate  that  Christian  faith  has  to 
be  supplemented  by  asceticism,  rigid  adherence  to  legal- 
istic formulas,  outward  ceremonials,  or  what  not.  *'You 
were  dead,  and  he  raised  you.  He  forgave  you;  he  blot- 
ted out  the  bond  of  ordinances  which  was  against  you. 
He  nailed  it  to  his  cross.  He  despoiled  all  this  hier- 
archy of  principalities  and  powers  of  which  these  false 
teachers  prate  so  eloquently.  He  made  a  public  show 
of  their  impotence  when  he  triumphed  over  them  by 
his  cross."  "What  need  for  anything  else?  Here  are 
the  great  spiritual  verities,  the  realities  of  the  Chris- 
tian life.  Let  no  man  crib,  cabin,  and  confine  you  in 
the  narrow  limitations  of  a  rigid  observance  of  mere 
diet  and  days.  The  kingdom  of  God  is  not  meat  and 
drink.  Let  no  man  rob  you  of  the  great  prize  of  spir- 
itual deliverance  won  for  you  by  Christ.  Do  not  be 
cheated  out  of  your  birthright  as  believers  in  a  risen, 
exalted  Lord  for  the  poor  mess  of  pottage  that  a  petty 
mundane,  philosophy  may  conjure  up.  Risen  with  Christ, 
your  direction  is  onward  and  upward,  not  backward  and 
downward.  Your  affections  and  your  hopes  are  with  him; 
and  the  source  of  your  life  is  not  in  the  specious  sys- 
tems that  mere  human  thinking  can  devise,  but  your 
life  has  its  rooting  in  God,  for  it  is  hid  with  Christ, 
and  he  is  all-supreme  and  all-sufficient."  (2:  8-3:  4, 
paraphrase. ) 

The  Universality  of  the  Christian  Message 

From  the  fifth  verse  of  the  third  chapter  to  the  sev- 
enth verse  of  the  fourth  Paul  is  occupied  in  giving  at- 


Paul's  Prison  Correspondence  77 

tention  to  the  all-embracing  scope  of  the  Christian  mes- 
sage. If  Christ  is  all-supreme  in  the  material  and 
moral  universe  and  all-sufficient  for  the  demands  of  the 
ever-enlarging  and  advancing  Christian  experience, 
then  his  claim  is  all-inclusive  and  the  Christian  obliga- 
tion is  universal  in  its  scope.  In  the  first  place,  this 
obligation  is  absolute  with  regard  to  all  forms  of  sin 
and  evil.  It  calls  for  a  crucifixion  of  the  members  that 
are  upon  the  earth  (3:  5)  and  a  putting  off  of  the  old 
man  with  his  deeds.  In  the  second  place,  it  demands 
the  putting  on  of  the  new  man,  beginning  with  a  heart 
like  unto  that  of  Christ,  issuing  in  an  attitude  to  men 
like  that  Christ  himself  maintained,  resulting  in  an 
inward  peace  such  as  Christ  ever  possessed,  and  mani- 
festing itself  at  all  times  as  guardian  of  that  word  of 
Christ  which  constantly  shows  its  fruitage  in  wise  ad- 
monitions to  men  and  grateful  praise  to  God  (3:  12- 
16). 

Again,  and  finally,  the  Christian  religion  is  for  all 
men  and  all  the  relations  of  life.  In  Christ  there  can- 
not be  Greek  and  Jew,  circumcision  and  uncircumci- 
sion,  barbarian,  Scythian,  bondman,  freeman,  but  Christ 
is  all  and  in  all.  It  encompasses  all  the  duties  of  life. 
"Whatsoever  ye  do  in  word  or  in  deed,  do  all  in  the 
name  of  the  Lord  Jesus."  And  all  relations,  too,  are  in- 
volved. Wives,  husbands,  children,  servants,  masters — 
all  are  to  live  under  the  direct  gaze  of  him  who  is  in 
heaven.  True  religion  does  not  spell  aristocracy,  wheth- 
er that  of  Pharisaic  pride  or  scribal  smartness,  but  it 
demands  a  divine  democracy  whose  guiding  principle 
is  the  Spirit  of  Jesus  and  whose  final  objective  is 
mutual  upbuilding.  Hence  Paul's  final  paragraph  (4: 
2-6)  claims  all  spiritual  exercise  as  Christ's  rightful 
possession.  The  prayer  life,  the  life  of  external  action, 
and  the  life  of  social  intercourse — all  these  are  to  be 
consecrated  to  him.  For  he  that  is  all-supreme  in  na- 
ture and  in  grace,  he  that  is  all-sufficient  for  the  initia- 
tion and  the  development  of  Christian  experience— this 
one  must  needs  be  also  all-sovereign  over  all  the  ranks 


78  The  Story  of  the  New  Testament 

of  men  and  over  all  the  ranges  of  human  activity;  for  it 
is  ever  true  that  "Christ  is  Lord  of  all  or  else  not  Lord 
at  all." 

The  Epistle  to  the  Ephesians 

Introduction 

This  writing  must  be  reckoned  as  dating  from 
Paul's  first  Roman  imprisonment,  and  is  best  under- 
stood when  considered  as  a  complement  to  the  let- 
ter sent  to  the  city  of  Colosse.  That  letter,  as  we 
have  seen,  is  the  apostle's  greatest  effort  to  set  forth 
in  its  true  light  his  conception  of  Christ's  person  and 
work.  It  is  highly  significant  that  just  about  this 
time  his  great  soul  should  have  given  expression  to 
the  Epistle  to  the  Ephesians — his  greatest  effort  to  set 
forth  the  true  nature  and  scope  of  the  Church.  Here 
he  was  in  the  capital  city  of  the  greatest  empire  his- 
tory had  known  up  to  that  time,  an  empire  truly  mag- 
nificent in  its  organization  and  imperial  in  its  demands 
upon  the  imagination  of  any  truly  thoughtful  soul.  The 
great  ideas  for  which  that  empire  stood  were  unity  and 
perpetuity.  The  slogan  of  all  in  authority  was:  "Let 
the  Eternal  City  give  laws  to  the  world."  These  two 
ideas,  thus  dimly  achieved  in  the  history  of  Rome, 
Paul  saw  gloriously  realized  in  the  conception  of  the 
Christian  Church.  Here,  exclaims  he,  is  the  really 
eternal  city  made  up  of  those  who  are  chosen  in  Him 
"before  the  foundation  of  the  world."  Here  is  the  real 
unity  among  the  nations.  Not  that  brought  about  by 
mere  force  of  arms,  but  that  wrought  out  by  the  mighty 
power  of  God  himself,  who  through  the  cross  of  his 
Son  has  broken  down  the  intervening  wall  of  the  par- 
tition separating  the  nations  of  earth  and  has  made 
of  all  men  one  new  humanity,  a  temple  high  and  holy, 
Jesus  Christ  himself  being  the  chief  Corner  Stone. 

Strange  irony  here!  The  enemies  that  thrust  this 
clear-eyed  seer  into  a  Roman  dungeon  were  simply  af- 
fording him  a  medium  through  which  to  view  the  fu- 
ture glory  of  the  Christian  Church.     Out  of  the  heart 


Paul's  Prison  Correspondence  7i> 

of  Rome,  the  synonym  for  war,  came  this  greatest  gift 
of  peace  the  world  has  yet  received — peace  with  God 
and  harmony  with  men.  Let  us  consider  somewhat 
generally  the  destination  and  doctrine  of  the  epistle 
and  conclude  with  a  brief  statement  of  its  contents. 

The  Destination  of  Ephesians 

In  all  probability  this  epistle  is  not  directed  solely 
to  the  Church  at  Ephesus.  Paul  had  spent  his  longest 
time  as  a  preacher-pastor  in  this  city,  and  it  is  hardly 
conceivable  that  had  he  been  writing  to  this  Church 
alone  he  would  have  refrained  from  all  salutations. 
In  all  his  other  letters  he  lets  us  know  who  his  friends 
are  and  for  the  most  part  why  they  are  his  friends.  It 
is  not  credible  that  he  would  have  here  broken  his 
custom  save  on  the  assumption  that  the  letter  was  sent 
to  others  as  well  as  to  the  saints  in  Diana's  district. 
Again,  the  fact  that  some  old  manuscripts  do  not  have 
in  the  opening  verse  the  phrase  "in  Ephesus"  seems  to 
suggest  that  the  destination  was  not  stated  or  at  least 
was  left  blank  to  be  filled  in  later  as  occasion  de- 
manded. In  Colossians  4:  16  Paul  says  to  that  Church: 
"And  when  this  epistle  has  been  read  among  you,  cause 
that  it  be  read  also  in  the  church  of  the  Laodiceans; 
and  that  ye  also  read  the  epistle  from  Laodicea."  It 
is  this  last  sentence  that  explains  the  situation.  Paul 
had  evidently  sent  a  special  letter  to  Colosse  because 
through  Epaphras  he  had  learned  of  dangers  then 
threatening  them.  Then,  knowing  that  the  whole  Ly- 
ons Valley  was  subject  more  or  less  to  the  same  stress 
and  strain,  he  decided  to  send  a  communication  to  suit 
the  conditions  that  confronted  all  the  chain  of  Churches 
there.  This  writing  would  set  forth  the  general  char- 
acteristics of  the  Church  of  Christ;  it  would  be  a  dis* 
cussion  of  the  fundamental  things  in  the  life  of  the 
Church;  it  would  stress  the  principles  of  unity  and  per- 
petuity— that  is,  it  would  be  a  performance  just  like 
the  one  we  have  before  us — it  would  be  sent  around  in 
the    circuit    of    those    Churches    Paul    had    enterprised 


80  The  Story  of  the  New  Testament 

while  he  made  Ephesus  his  strategic  base  of  missionary 
effort.  And  as  this  great  city  had  dominated  as  the 
center  of  the  heathen  worship  of  all  that  section,  it 
was  perfectly  natural  that  this  leadership  should  be 
characteristic  of  her  Christian  history  and  that  the  let- 
ter the  Church  should  finally  incorporate  into  the  canon 
would  be  the  copy  (or  the  copy  of  the  copy)  left  by  the 
itinerant  messenger  at  Ephesus. 

Some  Great  Teachings 

Among  the  fundamental  utterances  of  this  profound 
writing  we  must  mention  first  that  of  the  universal 
Fatherhood  of  God.  Indeed,  this  epistle  among  Paul's 
writings  is  on  this  point  what  St.  John  is  among  the 
Gospel  authors.  We  can  have  no  universe,  either  in  the 
moral  or  material  sphere,  save  on  this  conception  of  the 
Father  "from  whom  every  family  in  heaven  and  earth 
is  named." 

Going  along  with  this  as  a  necessary  correlate  there 
is  here  stressed  the  essential  unity  of  the  race  as  real- 
ized in  the  Christian  community.  Human  nature  as 
such  has  been  redeemed  and  exalted  in  Christ  into  the 
very  "heavenlies"  themselves. 

The  third  general  truth  emphasized  in  this  epistle  is 
the  divine  function  of  the  Christian  family.  If  God 
finds  his  crowning  glory  in  revealing  his  Fatherhood, 
and  if  humanity  has  been  ideally  realized  in  Christ, 
this  naturally  follows:  the  Christian  family  must  be 
the  very  antechamber  of  heaven.  Hence  Paul  in  his 
later  letters,  especially  in  Ephesians,  gives  a  much 
larger  place  to  the  family  as  the  seed  plot  of  the  king- 
dom and  the  bulwark  of  the  Church  than  he  does  in 
his  earlier  efforts.  In  these  first  letters  all  things  are 
foreshortened,  due  to  the  heavy  pressure  of  the  belief 
in  the  speedy  return  of  the  Lord.  Here,  however,  this 
impression  has  been  for  the  most  part  corrected,  and  a 
Jong  vista  is  thus  opened  up  for  the  future  history  of 
the  Church.  There  are  "ages  to  come"  which  are  to 
hear  of  his  wonderful  Gospel,  and  therefore  Paul  sees 


PauVa  PrisonVorrespondence  81 

the  greater  reason  why  he  should  dwell  upon  the  per- 
manence of  Christian  organization,  the  functions  of  the 
various  forces  working  for  the  kingdom,  and  various 
strata  of  the  social  order  diversified,  indeed,  in  end  but 
all-divine  in  origin.  Hence  it  follows  that  there  is  little 
"local  color"  exhortation  in  this  writing.  Its  great 
principles  are  as  pertinent  to-day  in  our  modern  cen- 
ters of  Church  and  commercial  activity  as  they  were  in 
the  great  city  of  Ephesus.  Here  time  is  caught  in  the 
mighty  grip  of  God's  all-inclusive  purpose  and  merged 
into  eternity;  here  all  mere  places  are  lifted  up  into 
"the  heavenlies";  here  the  discordant  and  hitherto  an- 
tagonistic becomes  harmonious  and  unified;  here  the 
transient  becomes  the  abiding — all  because  of  the  won- 
derful grace  of  God  revealed  in  the  redemptive  work 
of  Christ. 

The  Main  Contents 

There  seem  to  be  two  well-defined  sections  in  th6  six 
chapters  that  constitute  our  letter.  Chapters  1-3  are 
clearly  doctrinal,  this  section  closing  with  a  noble  dox- 
ology  which  sets  forth  in  clear  light  the  power  of  God 
and  his  claim  upon  the  jwaise  of  men.  Beginning  with 
chapter  4  and  going  through  to  the  end,  we  have  the 
hortatory  section,  which  appears  to  have  three  general 
divisions.  Chapters  4:  1-5:  21  are  an  appeal  to  the 
whole  Church,  in  which  they  are  exhorted  to  walk 
worthy  of  their  vocation  in  Christ,  to  part  company 
forever  with  their  old  Gentile  ideals,  to  practice  the 
peculiar  Christian  virtues  of  truthfulness,  honest  toil, 
purity  in  speech,  gentleness,  forbearance,  and  love. 
They  are  also  exhorted  to  avoid  certain  characteristic 
Gentile  vices,  such  as  impurity,  covetousness,  foolish 
jesting,  and  intemperance.  This  section  reaches  its 
climax  in  a  noble  plea  that  their  lives  be  full  of  thank- 
ful joy  and  praise  (5:  18-21). 

The  second  phase  of  this  hortatory  section  is  that 
directed  to  all  classes  constituting  the  Christian  Church 
(5:  22-6:  9).  Here  Paul  takes  the  Christian  home  as 
6 


82  The  Stinij  of  ihc  Xvic  Tcsttnncnt 

the  seed  plot  of  the  Church,  where  the  fundamental 
virtues  of  the  new  society  are  to  have  their  real  root- 
age and  first  fruitage.  The  whole  gamut  of  the  normal 
household  is  run — wives,  husbands,  children,  parents, 
servants,  masters.  None  are  overlooked  in  the  scheme 
of  gospel  redemption;  and  it  is  in  the  home,  where  the 
duties  of  submission,  love,  obedience,  and  forbearance 
are  inculcated  and  illustrated,  that  the  kingdom  of  God 
is  coming  most  speedily  and  most  surely. 

The  third  part  of  this  hortatory  section  (6:  10-20)  is 
doubtless  the  most  familiar  passage  in  the  entire  epistle. 
From  the  picture  of  the  ideal  home  which  Paul  denied 
himself  that  he  might  all  the  better  serve  his  Lord  he 
turns  to  the  cold  and  cheerless  prison  home  he  has  to 
inhabit.  From  the  gracious  Master  in  heaven,  in  whose 
employ  he  delights  to  be,  he  turns  to  his  Master  on 
earth,  and  he  sees  himself  chained  to  a  Roman  soldier. 
But,  far  from  being  depressed  by  the  sight,  he  gains 
and  gives  great  inspiration  from  what  his  eye  beholds. 
In  fact,  Paul  saw  the  gospel  message  wheresoever  his 
gaze  did  light.  So  he  begins  to  preach  the  gospel  of 
victorious  conquest  as  he  sees  the  equipment  of  his 
Roman  guard.  Mere  material  accouterment,  even  that 
of  imperial  Rome,  does  not  count  for  much  in  the 
struggle  the  souls  of  men  have  to  undergo.  Men  who 
follow  Christ  are  called  to  grander  campaigns  than 
Caesar  ever  summoned  his  legions  to.  Not  against  flesh 
and  blood,,  but  against  principalities  and  powers  and 
spiritual  hosts  of  wickedness  they  are  to  go  forth. 
Therefore  their  armor  must  be  of  God,  and  Paul's  faith 
will  not  allow  him  to  believe  less  than  that  God  will 
perfectly  equip  his  loyal  soldiers.  Ca?sar's  man  by  his 
side  has  all  that  is  requisite  for  successful  defense  or 
victorious  advance.  Shall  Christ's  man  be  less  pro- 
vided for?  Nay.  a  thousand  times  nay!  says  this  vali- 
ant veteran  of  many  a  hard  and  bitter  campaign. 
From  head  to  foot  he  is  incased  in  the  panoply  of  God. 
Truth,  righteousness,  faith,  salvation,  the  word  of  God 
— these  all  shall  prove  mighty  through  God  to  the  tear- 


PauVs  Prison  83 

ing  down  of  all  opposition  and  the  uprearing  of  the 
structure  of  the  kingdom  that  shall  abide. 

And  so  this  great  letter,  the  theme  of  which  is  unity 
and  perpetuity,  closes  with  the  figure  of  the  Christian 
soldier.  Great  are  the  victories  yet  to  be  won  ere  these 
two  great  principles  be  secured,  but  far  greater  is  our 
hope  to-day  than  ever.  The  progress  of  federation 
among  the  Churches  is  fast  breaking  down  the  middle 
wall  of  partition  that  has  so  long  divided  the  members 
of  Christ's  household.  The  dawn  of  the  day  of  denomi- 
national disarmament  is  dimly  discernible  even  now; 
and  the  progress  of  missions  abroad,  revealing  as  it 
does  day  by  day  the  intrenchment  of  the  Spirit  of  the 
living  Saviour  in  the  tombs  of  dead  and  dying  heathen 
faiths,  presages  with  an  emphasis  hitherto  unfelt  the 
time  when  the  kingdoms  of  this  world  shall  become 
the  kingdom  of  our  Lord.  The  new  man — neither  Greek 
nor  Jew,  neither  Anglo-Saxon  nor  Slav,  neither  Oriental 
nor  Occidental,  but  human  in  all  the  Christ-illumined 
interpretation  of  the  Word — is  beginning  to  take  form 
on  humanity's  horizon  and  to  inspire  humanity's  hopes, 
and  nearer  are  we  to-day  than  ever  the  fulfillment  of 
the  divine  ambition  which  voiced  itself  before  time  be- 
gan in  the  unquenchable  passion  of  the  infinite  Father: 
"Let  us  make  man  in  our  image." 

The  Epistle  to  thk  Philippians 
Introduction 

Our  study  of  Paul's  prison  correspondence  fitting- 
ly closes  with  his  farewell  letter  to  Europe,  and  it 
is  very  significant  that  it  is  directed  to  the  first 
Church  founded  by  him  on  that  continent.  By  referring 
to  the  chapter  in  Acts  (the  immortal  sixteenth)  we  will 
refresh  our  minds  on  the  thrilling  incidents  connected 
with  the  gospel  invasion  of  Europe,  and  many  points  in 
our. present  letter  will  have  much  light  cast  upon  them. 
In  addition  to  this  comment.  It  would  be  well  to  read 
1    Thessalonians    1:  6-10    and    2:  1,    2    for    further   light 


84  The  Story  of  the  New  Testament 

upon  the  whole  Grecian  situation.     With  these  general 
suggestions,  let  us  consider  the  following  points: 

Date  and  Occasion 

The  occasion  of  this  letter  is  very  clearly  stated  in 
the  concluding  paragraph  of  the  last  chapter  (4:  14-19). 
After  stating  with  characteristic  independence  his  all- 
sufficiency  in  Christ,  Paul  gracefully  and  gratefully  ac- 
knowledges the  gift  that  had  come  from  them  through 
the  kind  offices  of  Epaphroditus,  and  also  leaves  them 
and  us  to  infer  that  this  Church  was  the  only  one  from 
which  he  ever  consented  to  receive  gifts  of  this  sort. 
And  it  is  doubtless  the  people  at  Philippi  he  has  in 
mind  when  he  says  to  the  proud  Pharisees  at  Corinth: 
"I  robbed  other  Churches,  .  .  .  that  I  might  minis- 
ter unto  you."  (2  Cor.  11:  8.)  As  we  recur  to  the  cir- 
cumstances  of  the  founding  of  this  first  Church  in 
Europe  and  witness  the  persecution  and  humiliating  in- 
solence heaped  upon  the  apostle  there,  it  is  no  wonder 
that  the  fevv^  faithful  souls  that  did  accept  his  message 
were  bound  to  him  by  ties  absolutely  unbreakable. 

If  the  last  chapter  gives  us  the  occasion,  the  first 
gives  us  a  strong  clue  to  the  date  of  this  writing.  In 
this  chapter  (1:  23)  Paul  states  the  dilemma  he  finds 
himself  in.  He  is  in  a  strait  betwixt  two:  whether  to 
depart  and  be  with  Christ  or  to  abide  and  labor  in  their 
behalf.  He  finally  dissolves  the  doubt  by  calmly  assur- 
ing them:  "I  know  that  I  shall  abide  with  you  all." 
This  seems  to  point  to  the  conclusion  that  he  is  re- 
ferring to  his  near  release  from  imprisonment.  He  is 
in  such  intimate  association  with  the  household  of 
Caesar  (4:  22)  that  all  rumors  incident  to  his  trial  are 
at  once  made  known  to  him. 

There  are  some  able  interpreters  who  regard  this 
epistle  as  first  in  the  order  of  his  captivity  correspond- 
ence. But  we  rather  read  the  facts  in  such  a  way  as  to 
infer  from  all  the  canons  of  criticism  the  order  adopted 
by  us — Colossians  having  as  its  occasion  the  rise  of  an 
incipent  gnosticism  and  a  consequent  temptation  to  doc- 


Puid's  PrUon  85 

trinal  aberration;  Philemon  having  its  occasion  in 
Rome  in  the  conversion  of  a  runaway  slave*  Ephesians 
having  its  occasion  in  Paul's  knowledge  that  the  entire 
Lycus  Valley  was  in  danger  of  losing  the  keynote  of 
Christianity;  and,  finally,  toward  the  close  of  his  im- 
prisonment, this  Philippian  Church,  situated  as  it  was 
in  a  city  that  had  the  boon  of  Roman  citizenship,  and 
as  a  colony  was  continually  looking  toward  the  mother 
city  of  the  empire,  hearing  of  Paul's  condition  as  a 
captive  there  and  fearing  that  their  father  in  the  faith 
was  in  need  of  the  necessities  of  life,  out  of  hearts  of 
gratitude  transmit  to  him  a  generous  offering  indica- 
tive of  their  love  and  confidence. 

General  Character  and  Contents 

We  are  not  to  suppose  that  this  is  Paul's  first  com- 
munication to  the  Church  at  Philippi,  for  this  is  not 
their  first  contribution  to  him  (4:16);  and  certainly 
Paul  would  be  the  last  man  in  the  world  to  omit  the 
courtesy  of  an  acknowledgment  of  their  bounty.  This 
letter  is  a  spontaneous  stream  of  spiritual  suggestive- 
ness — all  the  more  spiritual  because  more  and  more  the 
material  is  vanishing  from  the  apostle's  gaze,  all  the 
more  suggestive  because  its  power  lies  not  so  much  in 
what  is  said  as  in  what  is  implied,  all  the  more  spon- 
taneous because  of  the  purely  personal  relation  it  em- 
bodies. Here,  indeed,  also  we  have  Paul's  interpreta- 
tion of  Christianity  in  its  purely  positive  aspects.  Its 
purpose  is  not  to  denounce  errors  in  doctrine  nor  to 
combat  delinquencies  in  duty,  but  to  recognize  and  em- 
phasize the  life  through  Christ  and  the  life  in  Christ. 
This  feature  of  our  epistle  should  cause  us  at  such  a 
time  as  this  great  gratitude.  How  pleasing  that  the 
apostle's  correspondence  with  his  Churches  should  close 
in  this  fashion — in  the  calm  and  clear  presentation  of 
those  great  positive  principles  of  Christianity  the  ear- 
nest proclamation  of  which  has  ever  proved  the  only  cor- 
rective for  a  lax  discipline  and  a  sufficient  safeguard 
against  every  erroneous  doctrine! 


86  The  Story  of  the  New  Testament 

The  Doctrinal  Element 

While  the  primary  emphasis  in  this  epistle  is  not  on 
doctrine,  what  is  said  is  by  no  means  unimportant. 
Three  great  passages  must  at  least  be  mentioned,  though 
their  full  discussion  would  run  into  volumes.  The  first 
of  these  (2:  5-11)  gives  in  graphic  outline  the  dominat- 
ing motive  underlying  the  work  of  Christ.  While,  of 
course,  the  writer  never  intended  this  as  a  strictly 
scientific  analysis  of  the  relations  subsisting  between 
Christ  and  God,  and  while  it  would  hardly  be  fair  to 
erect  upon  this  paragraph  alone  a  theory  of  the  nature 
of  our  Lord,  still  the  fundamental  postulates  of  Chris- 
tianity are  here  in  an  emphatic  form,  and  we  cannot 
fall  far  short  of  his  meaning  if  we  insist  that  Paul 
meant  nothing  less  than  absolute  divinity  as  the  pre- 
mundane  possession  of  Christ.  It  was  his  great  height 
that  gave  point  and  power  to  his  great  descent.  With- 
out such  a  Saviour,  Christianity  would  never  have 
started  Saul  of  Tarsus  on  his  glorious  career;  and  sure- 
ly the  need  for  such  a  Saviour  has  not  been  supplied 
so  far  from  any  other  source. 

The  second  great  passage  is  found  in  chapter  3:  3-16. 
Here  is  the  apostle's  teaching  with  regard  to  the  de- 
mands of  discipleship.  The  disciple,  says  Paul,  is  not 
above  his  Lord.  If  he  stooped  to  conquer,  so  must  we. 
Our  first  duty  is  to  deny  self.  This  is  the  paramount 
precept;  and  as  Christ  himself  has  illustrated  it  in  the 
first  instance,  so  one  looks  in  vain  for  a  higher  human 
example  than  Paul.  In  this  passage,  which  utters  his 
protest  against  Judaism,  he  shows  how  futile  it  is  from 
the  fact  that  he  had  enjoyed  its  prerogatives  in  the 
very  highest  degree.  And  yet  the  outcome  was  spir- 
itual bankruptcy,  and  he  never  reached  true  riches  till 
he  turned  his  back  on  all  for  Christ.  Then,  and  then 
only,  it  was  that  he  came  to  have  a  real  righteousness 
—not  his  own,  but  of  Christ — bestowed;  then,  and  then 
only,  did  he  become  rich  in  knowledge  by  reason  of 
coming  to  know  the  power  of  Christ's  resurrection;  and 
then,  and  then  only,  did  he  become  rich  in  a  hope  that 


PauVs  l^rison  Correspondence  S7 

pierced  the  gloom  of  the  grave  and  lent  its  alluring 
rays  to  light  his  pathway  to  his  new-found  goal,  "the 
high  calling  of  God  in  Christ  Jesus." 

A  third  general  point  of  teaching  we  must  glance  at. 
This  is  the  comprehensiveness  of  Christianity  as  set 
forth  in  chapter  4:8,  9.  This  is  a  consequence  of  the 
other  two.  Christ  is  Lord  over  all,  and  as  such  is  the 
Author  of  our  salvation.  He  is  Lord  of  all,  and  as  such 
has  the  right  to  lay  down  the  demands  of  discipleship. 
On  the  strength  of  these  two  is  laid  the  foundation  of 
the  gospel's  "whosoever."  But  Christ  is  to  be  Lord 
in  all  as  well.  There  is  a  "whatsoever"  answering  to 
the  "whosoever."  His  domain  not  only  includes  all 
men;  it  is  just  as  sweeping  in  its  inclusion  of  their 
tasks.  The  kingdom  of  our  Christ  includes  all  truth, 
all  honor,  all  justice,  all  purity,  all  loveliness,  all  things 
of  good  report — every  conceivable  virtue,  every  conceiv- 
able object  of  approbation.    So  Paul,  too,  knows  that 

"There  are  no  Gentile  oaks,  no  pagan  pines; 
The  grass  beneath  our  feet  is  sacred  grass." 

And  he,  along  with  us  all,  rejoices  that  so  bigoted  a 
Pharisee  has  been  transformed  Into  so  cosmopolitan  a 
Christian. 

The  Spiritual  Tone 

No  one  can  keep  company  with  Paul  in  this  letter 
without  recognizing  the  spiritual  tonic  of  its  bracing 
atmosphere.  There  is  a  ringing  note  of  joy  pervading 
uearly  every  paragraph:  "Rejoice,  .  .  .  and  again  I 
say,  Rejoice"  (4:  4).  Again,  the  calm  dignity  and  unruf- 
fled peace  of  mind  of  the  writer  cannot  escape  us.  He 
is  here  the  best  illustration  of  the  promise  he  records: 
"The  peace  of  God  shall  stand  guard  like  a  sentinel 
over  your  hearts  and  your  thoughts  in  Christ  Jesus" 
(4:  7).  Two  illustrations — one  at  the  beginning,  the 
other  at  the  close— of  the  letter  must  suffice.  The  first 
(1:  12-23)  may  be  happily  termed  "the  fortune  of  mis- 
fortune." Those  buffetings  which  have  been  Paul's  Jot 
tor  so  many  days  had  now  their  full  explanation.     All 


8S  The  Story  of  the  Neio  Testament 

things  are  under  the  guidance  of  a  Father's  love. 
Things  which  boded  disaster  to  the  gospel  and  probable 
extinction  of  its  chief  herald  had  turned  out  marvel- 
ously  otherwise.  The  advent  of  Paul  had  given  such 
an  impetus  to  gospel  preaching  at  Rome  as  it  had  never 
known  before.  His  bonds  had  proved  more  eloquent 
than  his  tongue.  Not  only  the  citizens,  but  the  soldiers, 
rude  and  crude  as  they  were,  had  heard,  and  even  into 
the  walls  of  the  palace  itself  the  message  of  the  Cruci- 
fied had  found  its  way,  and  saints  were  being  developed 
among  the  slaves  of  Caesar's  household. 

The  other  passage  is  even  more  suggestive.  It  pre- 
sents not  so  much  the  progress  of  grace  outwardly,  but 
rather  inwardly  in  the  heart  of  the  apostle  himself. 
Possibly  no  words  tell  us  so  much  of  the  power  of 
Christ  to  solve  the  problem  of  a  human  heart  as  this 
paragraph  does  (4:  11-13).  Paul  here  makes  three 
statements:  "I  have  learned,  ...  I  know,  ...  I 
can  do."  His  life,  then,  has  not  been  in  vain;  his 
spirit  has  been  under  the  educative  process,  and  the 
fruits  of  a  true  culture  appear  in  that  he  has  studied 
in  the  school  of  Christ,  caught  his  spirit,  and  ac- 
quired his  power.  Paul  is  thus  discovered  to  be  a  mas- 
ter, because  he  has  met  the  Master  and  has  owned  his 
sway.  His  is  a  great  life,  because  through  his  life  he 
let  the  "Life  of  lives"  live.  And  how  fitting  it  is  that 
this  man,  whom  in  his  letters  we  have  followed  through 
Thessalonica-,  Galatia,  Corinth,  Rome,  Ephesus,  and 
Colosse  and  found  to  be  a  fearless  opponent  of  evil  and 
a  peerless  exponent  of  God,  should  conclude  in  this 
fashion!  How  significant  is  this  last  glimpse  we  get  of 
him  as  he  makes  his  appeal  to  Philippi,  not  many  miles 
distant  from  Thessalonica,  whither  the  first  letter  was 
sent!  We  have  followed  him  in  his  literary  circuit, 
and  he  brings  us  back  to  Christ  as  the  Author  of  all 
his  inspiration  and  the  Source  of  all  his  power.  Paul, 
though  he  has  written  all  these  mighty  messages,  is 
still  sitting,  a  docile  pupil,  at  the  feet  of  Jesus.  His 
ambition  still  is  "that  I  may  know  him."    And  here  at 


Paul's  Prison  Correspondence  89 

the  feet  of  the  great  Teacher,  whose  messages  he  has 
done  most  to  formulate  and  illustrate,  is  where  all  our 
study  of  Paul  should  leave  us. 


Thought  Questions 

1.  Outline  the  story  of  Paul's  travels  from  the  last 
visit  to  Corinth  and  the  writing  of  the  letter  to  the 
Romans  (Acts  19:  21,  22)  to  his  imprisonment  in  Rome 
(Acts  28:  30). 

2.  Had  the  restriction  of  his  liberty  anything  to  do 
with  the  character  and  extent  of  Paul's  literary  activi- 
ties during  the  period  of  imprisonment? 

3.  What  are  the  prison  epistles?  Why  not  include  the 
letter  to  Philemon? 

4.  What  fear  expressed  by  Paul  in  Acts  20:  29,  30  had 
proved  to  be  well  grounded  with  reference  to  the  Church 
at  Colosse  and  other  Churches  of  the  same  region;  and 
what  were  the  two  outstanding  characteristics  of  the 
erroneous  teachings  that  were  there  beginning  to  pre- 
vail? 

5.  What  consequent  question  of  the  moral  life  fol- 
lowed as  a  corollary  of  the  doctrinal  errors? 

6.  How  did  Paul  meet  the  Colossian  errors  concerning 
(1)  creation,  (2)  the  object  of  creation,  and  (3)  the 
moral  explanation  of  creation? 

7.  If  Christ  is  the  efficient  agent  of  creation,  the  reve- 
lation of  God  and  the  moral  vindication  and  goal  of  all 
things,  what  does  Paul  infer  to  be  the  scope  and  the 
breadth  of  application  of  the  gospel  message? 

8.  What  was  the  especial  purpose  of  the  letter  to  the 
Ephesians,  and  in  what  way  is  it  a  complement  to  the 
letter  to  the  Colossians? 

9.  What  are  the  three  great  outstanding  truths  in 
Ephesians?  (Fatherhood  of  God;  unity  of  the  race  real- 
ized in  the  Christian  community;  the  divine  function  of 
the  Christian  family.) 

10.  From  a  reading  of  Philippians  what  do  you  gather 
as  to  date,  personal  relations  of  the  writing,  and  the 
especial  occasion  for  the  writing? 

11.  Give  the  substance  of  the  three  great  doctrinal 
passages  in  the  letter  to  the  Philippians.  2:  5-11,  the 
motive  underlying  the  work  of  Christ;  3:  3-16,  the  de- 
mands of  discipleship;  4:  10,  the  Inclusiveness  of  Chris- 
tian life  and  duty. 


VI.  PAUL'S  PASTORAL  AND  PERSONAL 
CORRESPONDENCE 


Passages  for  Daily  Readings 

Sunday. — Some  Personal  References.  Acts  16:1-3; 
17:  13,  14;  18:  5,  6;  2  Corinthians  2:  12-14,  7:  5,  6,  13-16; 
Galatians  2:  1-3;  Colossians  4:  7-9. 

Monday. — A  Country  Bishop's  Responsibilities.  Titus 
1:  5-2:  8. 

Tuesday. — An  Old  Apostle's  Reminiscences.  1  Timothy 
1:  12-29. 

Wednesday. — Practical  Exhortations.  1  Timothy  2:  8- 
15;  3:  1-13;  6:  11-19. 

Thursday. — Wise  Counsels  to  a  Young  Minister.  2 
Timothy  2:  1-8,  14-16.  22-26;  4:  1-5. 

Friday. — Some  Faithful  Sayings.  1  Timothy  1:15; 
3:  1-16;  5:  78;  2  Timothy  2:  11-13. 

Saturday.— The  Most  Beautiful  Letter  Ever  Penned 
Philemon.  

Introduction 
We  give  the  title  "Pastoral"  to  the  three  letters 
that  have  come  down  to  us  under  the  name  of  Paul, 
directed  to  his  missionary  helpers,  Timothy  and  Ti- 
tus. In  a  sense,  all  the  letters  of  Paul  we  have  hith- 
erto studied  are  pastoral;  but  the  title  is  more  ap- 
propriately given  to  these,  seeing  that  they  are  ad- 
dressed to  men  who  have  pastoral  oversight  of  certain 
congregations.  In  them  Paul  tries  to  give  specific  di- 
rections which,  if  followed,  will  help  his  representa- 
tives in  their  labor  for  the  souls  of  men  and  the  up- 
building of  the  kingdom.  There  are  no  other  writings 
in  the  New  Testament  which  constitute  such  a  rich 
treasury  of  practical  instruction  as  do  these  brief  let- 
ters. Unfortunately,  for  over  a  century  they  have  been 
in  the  maelstrom  of  criticism,  and  to  a  great  extent  the 
patience  of  both  commentator  and  reader  has  been  ex- 
hausted on  matter  of  introduction,  and  the  rich  spir- 
itual repasts  have  for  the  most  part  in  the  study  of  the 
(90) 


Pastoral  and  Personal  Correspondence      1)1 

nineteenth  century  been  sacrificed  for  the  crusts  of 
criticism  and  the  dry  bones  of  ecclesiastical  archaeology. 
Such  must  not  be  our  method  of  approach  in  this  study. 
We  approach  them  not  from  the  standpoint  of  criticism, 
nor  from  the  standpoint  of  Church  organization,  but 
rather  from  the  standpoint  of  the  personal  relation  the 
author  sustains  to  the  addressees. 

Let  us  begin  with  Titus.  When  Paul  met  Titus,  we 
do  not  know.  In  fact,  it  is  one  of  the  standing  mys- 
teries of  New  Testament  biography — second  only  to  the 
fact  that  John  the  apostle  is  not  mentioned  in  the 
fourth  Gospel— that  Titus  does  not  appear  in  the  whole 
range  of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles.  This  has  led  some 
to  argue  that  he  is  to  be  identified  with  Luke  or  Silas; 
but  we  cannot  accept  these  efforts  as  satisfactory.  Suf- 
fice it  to  say  that  he  looms  large  in  Paul's  epistles,  no- 
tably Galatians  and  2  Corinthians.  He  was  a  pure 
Gentile  and  figured  conspicuously  at  the  Jerusalem  con- 
ference as  a  sample  of  what  Christianity  could  do  with 
heathen  material.  Later  on  we  find  that  he  was  of 
great  service,  both  personally  and  professionally,  to  Paul, 
for  it  was  his  arrival  and  ministration  that  rescued 
the  great  apostle  from  some  great  spiritual  and  possi- 
bly physical  depression  and  brought  him  back  to  life 
and  hope.  (2  Cor.  2:  12-14  and  1:  8,  9.)  Subsequently  to 
this  he  was  of  great  service  to  his  father  in  the  faith 
in  the  part  he  played  in  helping  on  the  matter  of  the 
collection  and  other  administrative  details  at  Corinth. 
He  ever  appears  as  a  strong,  sane,  and  in  every  way 
noble  Christian  character — just  such  a  man  as  Paul 
would  be  proud  to  leave  in  a  position  of  difficulty  and 
responsibility. 

The  Epistles  to  Titus 

It  is  just  such  an  appointment  he  has  at  the  hands 
of  Paul.  He  is  read  out  for  the  Church  in  Crete,  the 
central  island  of  the  Mediterranean.  He  has  the  whole 
island  for  his  parish,  and  his  work  is  "to  set  in  order 
the  things  that  are  wanting,  and  appoint  elders  in 
# 


IJ2  The  Story  of  the  New  Testament 

every  city."  If  any  preacher  ever  had  a  "big  appoint- 
ment," it  certainly  was  Brother  Titus.  The  territory 
to  be  covered  was  immense,  the  obstacles  to  be  encoun- 
tered were  formidable,  and  the  people  to  whom  he  was 
sent— well,  the  least  said  about  them,  the  better.  Their 
outstanding  national  trait — even  on  their  own  confes- 
sion— was  a  triple  alliance  of  falsehood,  bestiality,  and 
idleness.  They  were  liars,  lustful,  and  lazy.  What  sort 
of  Christian  leadership  ought  to  be  set  over  such  a  herd 
of  swine?  Here,  if  anywhere,  men  must  be  found  who 
are  not  conformed  to  this  environment,  but  who,  hav- 
ing been  transformed  by  the  Spirit  of  Christ,  can  now 
demonstrate  the  transforming  power  of  nonconformity. 
These  swine  must  be  changed  to  sheep;  and  before  the 
shepherd  can  hug  them  to  his  bosom"  he  must  scrub 
them  and  drub  them  to  wash  and  wean  them  of  their 
filth  and  mire.  No  "like  people,  like  priest"  for  Paul 
here  in  Crete!  Rather  he  would  have  Titus  himself 
and  the  overseers  he  appoints  and  the  deacons  and  the 
members  of  the  Church — men,  women,  children,  and 
slaves— all  of  them  face  this  great  fact,  that  the  real 
gospel  message  is  a  transformed  human  life  that  sheds 
the  aroma  and  beauty  of  a  heavenly  sweetness  and 
glory  in  never  so  untoward  an  atmosphere.  "For  the 
grace  of  God  that  bringeth  salvation  hath  appeared  to 
all  men,  teaching  us  that,  denying  ungodliness  and 
worldly  lusts',  we  should  live  soberly,  righteously,  and 
godly,  in  this  present  world;  looking  for  that  blessed 
hope,  and  the  glorious  appearing  of  the  great  God  and 
our  Saviour  Jesus  Christ;  who  gave  himself  for  us, 
that  he  might  redeem  us  from  all  iniquity,  and  purify 
unto  himself  a  peculiar  people,  zealous  of  good  works." 
(Titus  2:  11-14.)  This  is  Paul's  epitome  of  the  evangel 
for  Crete;  and  Crete  was  the  world  in  epitome.  Here  is 
a  great  revelation,  a  great  education,  a  great  inspira- 
tion, a  great  expectation,  and  a  great  salvation.  The 
third  chapter  of  this  bugle  call  to  action  shows  the 
attitude  Christians  are  to  assume  to  the  government 
an0  social  order  under  which  they  live.    Here  the  great 

% 


Pastoral  and  Personal  Correspondence     93 

law  is  to  destroy  evil  by  the  conquering  power  of  love 
and  holiness  of  life.  Not  agitation,  nor  even  lesisla- 
tion,  is  any  permanent  cure  for  the  ills  that  afflict  so 
sorely  the  social  order;  but  consecration  to  high  and 
holy  living  and  immolation  of  self  on  the  altar  of 
human  service — this  is  the  way  the  kindly  disposition 
of  the  first  great  philanthropist  has  been  manifested 
to  men.  (Titus  3:  4,  5.)  Paul  closes  this  strong  and 
sympathetic  appeal  to  his  sturdy  colaborer  by  referring 
to  his  plans  for  spending  the  winter  at  Nicopolis.  This 
means,  of  course,  that  he  is  free  from  the  restraint  of 
prison  restrictions;  and  in  the  hope  of  meeting  his  legal 
adviser,  Zenas,  and  his  preacher  friend,  Apollos,  he 
closes  with  the  conviction  that  the  Christians  of  Crete 
will  be  the  better  for  his  writing,  and  that  when  Titus 
comes  to  conference  at  Nicopolis  he  will  be  able  to  re- 
port a  year  of  unprecedented  achievement. 

The  First  Epistle  to  Timothy 

Our  environment  is  altogether  different  in  the  epistles 
to  Timothy.  We  have  left  Crete,  the  island,  and  are  now 
in  Ephesus,  the  great  metropolis.  The  crudeness  of  the 
country  has  given  place  to  the  culture  of  the  city.  The 
strong  Titus  withdraws,  and  the  timid  Timothy  ap- 
pears. All  is  changed  save  one — yea,  two  things:  the 
fact  and  force  of  sin  and  the  presence  and  power  of 
God  in  his  gospel  to  save.  Paul's  relation  to  Timothy 
constitutes  one  of  the  standing  charms  of  the  New 
Testament.  Their  first  meeting  was  significant.  It 
was  during  the  course  of  Paul's  first  missionary  jour- 
ney away  out  in  the  wilds  of  South  Galacia,  in  the 
neighborhood  of  Derbe  and  Lystra,  that  this  love  first 
leaped  into  life.  It  was  born  at  the  gates  of  death. 
For  who  can  say  that  it  was  not  Paul's  heroic  suffering 
of  stoning  for  the  cause  of  truth  that  first  fired  the 
faith  of  the  youthful  half  Jew?  And,  inspired  by  this 
mighty  exhibition  of  manhood,  he  forsook  the  twilight 
of  Judaism  for  the  full  splendor  of  the  Christian  day. 
Another  reason,  too:   Timothy  is  the  sad  spectacle  of  a 


94  The  Story  of  the  New  Testament 

youth  reared  without  the  sanction  and  example  of  a 
religious  father.  He  had  a  noble  mother  and  a  de- 
voted grandmother.  We  thank  God,  as  Paul  did,  for 
their  training  of  him  in  godly  things.  But  without 
any  derogation  of  their  zeal  and  industry,  it  must  be 
said  that  Timothy  carried  to  the  day  of  his  death, 
doubtless,  the  marks  of  an  unfinished  training.  The 
mother  can  do  a  great  deal,  but  neither  she  nor  her 
mother  can  do  all  that  is  necessary  in  the  training  of 
the  life  of  a  boy.  As  long  as  we  know  him,  Timothy 
shows  a  lack  of  virility  and  an  overplus  of  timidity. 
O,  if  his  father  had  only  been  a  Jew  or  even  a  devout 
proselyte!  But  he  was  not.  He  was  a  heathen.  Here, 
then,  was  a  son  that  needed  a  father,  and  here  in  Paul 
was  a  father-heart  that  needed  a  son.  What  wonder 
that  this  romance  of  the  soul  of  these  two,  beginning 
out  in  the  wilds  of  heathenism,  is  cemented  all  the 
stronger  as  the  years  of  labor  and  suffering  and  con- 
quest go  by,  and  that  it  is  finally  consecrated  and,  so 
far  as  earth  is  concerned,  consummated  in  the  joyous 
meeting  that  we  pray  God  did  take  place? 

When  in  the  last  moments  of  his  imprisonment, 
weighed  down  by  a  sense  of  weariness  and  loneliness 
and  desertion,  Paul  forgets  that  he  is  a  great  preacher, 
a  great  organizer,  a  great  theologian,  a  great  philosopher 
— all  these  crowd  out  of  his  memory.  He  has  no  room 
for  any  feeling  save  the  exquisite  pang  of  paternity; 
he  knows  only  that  he  has  the  heart  of  a  great  father, 
and  in  a  sentence  the  pathos  of  which  brings  tears  to 
our  eyes  to-day  he  cries  out:  "Use  every  effort  to  come 
to  me  at  once."  Let  no  curious  eye  desecrate  that  scene 
when,  in  the  mutual  embrace  of  father  and  son  in  the 
gospel,  that  Roman  dungeon  became  the  gateway  to 
glory  and  its  gloom  was  made  radiant  in  the  glow  of  a 
divinely  perfected  human  affection. 

But  we  turn  from  this  their  last  meeting  on  earth 
to  their  earlier  relations.  From  their  second  mission- 
ary journey  Timothy  is  closely  identified  with  Paul  in 
all  tlie   perils  and  joys  and  sorrows  of  his  missionary 


Pastoral  and  Personal  Correspondence      95 

propaganda.  At  Philippi,  Berea,  Thessalonica,  Corinth, 
Ephesus,  again  in  Macedonia  and  Acliaia — possibly  he 
was  with  him  during  his  Csesarean  captivity;  certainly 
he  was  with  him  in  his  first  Roman  imprisonment. 
These  are  just  hints  to  show  us  how  closely  linked  to- 
gether were  these  two  lives.  It  is  no  wonder,  then, 
that  when  Paul  needed  a  representative  at  Ephesus,  the 
city  where  he  had  spent  his  longest  pastorate  and  done 
his  greatest  work,  he  appeals  to  Timothy  first  v/ith  his 
"Who  will  go  for  me?"  The  reference  that  Paul  makes 
to  this  appointment  in  1  Timothy  1:  3  seems  to  indicate 
that  it  took  some  persuasion  on  his  part.  We  may 
readily  surmise  the  reason  for  this.  Timothy's  natu- 
rally timid  disposition,  coupled  with  the  hugeness  of 
the  task  precipitated  by  such  a  center  as  Ephesus,  com- 
bined with  a  commendable  humility  on  his  part  as  to 
the  outcome  of  his  stepping  into  PauVs  shoes,  is  suf- 
ficient explanation.  It  was  not  any  lack  of  love,  but 
rather  lack  of  confidence  in  his  own  resources,  that 
made  him  falter.  This,  to  my  mind,  is  the  key  of  a 
great  deal  that  has  confounded  the  critics  in  this 
epistle.  They  cannot  see  why  it  is  that  Paul  gives  so 
much  superfluous  information  (as  they  call  it)  to  such 
men  as  Timothy  and  Titus,  who  ought  to  know  all 
about  his  personal  experiences.  They  say:  "Why  does 
Paul  treat  Timothy  and  Titus,  who  for  years  have  been 
true  and  tried  friends,  like  small  boys?  Why  does  he 
tell  them  so  many  things  they  ought  to  know  and  really 
know  already?  Why  burden  the  epistles  to  them  with 
details  of  the  apostle's  conversion — and  even  precon- 
version — experience?"  At  first  glance  this  objection 
seems  formidable;  and  yet  the  more  clearly  we  con- 
struct the  conditions,  the  less  pertinence  it  seems  to 
have. 

To  begin  with,  these  men  are  practically  missionary 
helpers  facing  hard  problems  of  discipline  and  Church 
organization  in  difficult  fields.  This  one  fact,  once 
recognized  in  all  its  implications,  will  do  more  than  a 
score  of  commentaries  to  clear  up  the  situation.    What 


9(>  The  Story  of  the  IW'w  Testament 

Timothy  and  Titus  need  is  not  so  much  instruction  as 
inspiration;  and  if  we  read  the  references,  say  to  Paul's 
conversion,  in  this  light,  we  shall  see  that  they  are 
not  pieces  of  superfluous  impertinence,  but  levers  of 
supreme  value  to  lift  these  his  representatives  out  of 
the  pit  of  doubt  and  distrust  and  send  them  to  their 
tasks  with  the  momentum  of  a  divine  dynamic.  Hence 
it  is,  we  think,  that,  say,  for  example,  in  the  first  chap- 
ter of  First  Timothy,  after  outlining  his  task  and  call- 
ing to  Timothy's  mind  the  opposition  he  will  encounter, 
Paul  in  the  twelfth  verse  tells  his  own  experience  of 
the  grace  of  God  in  Christ,  and  in  an  exultant  shout- 
proclaims  his  gratitude  that  his  life  and  work  is  such 
a  signal  demonstration  of  the  power  of  the  gospel.  To 
read  this  passage  as  the  effort  of  Paul  to  impart  infor- 
mation is  to  miss  completely  its  significance.  To  see 
in  it  an  effort  to  impart  inspiration  is  to  put  behind  the 
timid  Timothy  the  momentum  of  a  mighty  life  and  to 
fire  a  youthful  heart  with  the  flaming  zeal  of  a  veteran. 
One  other  point  must  be  recognized,  and  that  is  the 
human  element  in  all  of  this  attitude  of  Paul  to  his 
younger  brothers.  He  does  not  call  them  brothers,  but 
his  children.  He  is  their  spiritual  father;  they  are  his 
children  in  the  faith.  No  man  ever  grows  up  In  the 
eyes  of  his  father.  We  are  always  children  to  our 
parents.  There  is  on  record  an  incident  related  of  a 
mother  who  lived  to  the  great  age  of  over  a  hundred 
years,  exclaiming  on  the  death  of  her  eldest  daughter, 
who  passed  away  at  the  ripe  age  of  threescore  and  six- 
teen: "O  the  dear  little  darling!  We  never  hoped  that 
she  would  grow  up." 

Another  point  may  have  had  some  weight.  Not  only 
the  missionary  task  and  the  human  relation  authorize 
the  attitude  Paul  assumes  in  these  pages,  but  the  grow- 
ing tendency  of  professionalism  may  have  influenced 
him  more  than  has  been  recognized  to  lay  the  emphasis 
on  paternalism.  He  could  not  be  blind  to  the  fact  that 
Church  organization  might  fast  degenerate  Into  pro- 
fessionalism   and    that    the    petrifying    processes    of    a 


Pastoral  and  Personal  Correspondence      97 

mere  mechanical  system  might  speedily  choke  up  the 
fountains  of  personal  and  vital  relations.  Paul's  con- 
ception of  the  Church  is  not  that  of  a  machine,  but  an 
organism.  It  has  power,  but  it  is  heart  power;  it  has 
functions,  yet  these  are  not  mechanical,  but  vital. 

Second  Timothy 

In  Second  Timothy  the  scene  shifts  again.  Paul  is 
once  more  in  prison,  with  no  hope  of  release.  To  the 
personal  sufferings  he  has  been  called  upon  to  undergo 
is  added  the  grief  that  all  his  friends  are  gone — some, 
sad  to  say,  back  to  the  world,  others  off  to  distant  fields 
of  labor.  This  leaves  him  lonely  and  sad.  Where  is 
the  buoyancy  and  brilliance  of  the  first  imprisonment 
that  gave  rise  to  such  letters  as  Philippians  and  Colos- 
sians?  It  does  not  exist.  He  has  no  time  nor  strength 
to  fight  over  the  old  battles  or  to  enterprise  new  con- 
quests. He  has  only  time  and  strength  to  sing  his 
swan  song.  To  whom  shall  he  pen  his  last  will  and 
testament  save  to  Timothy,  his  dearly  beloved  son? 
And  so  with  trembling  lips  he  begins.  Like  all  the  ex- 
pressions of  age,  it  is  predominantly  experiential.  The 
apostle  grows  reminiscential.  He  begins  with  his  life 
as  a  Jew;  traces  the  influence  of  the  gospel  in  his  own 
character;  takes  in  his  sweep  the  experiences  of  Tim- 
othy too  (3:  10-13)  as  witness  of  what  he  has  endured 
for  the  gospel;  exhorts  him  to  a  continuance  in  stead- 
fastness; strives  by  all  the  power  of  logic  and  the  ap- 
peal of  love  to  instill  into  the  marrow  of  the  young 
man  the  iron  tonic  of  his  own  faith  and  zeal;  and  after 
giving  this  glance  at  the  past  and  sizing  up  present 
conditions  confronting  the  Church  and  the  Christian 
preacher,  he  looks  with  steady  gaze  and  undimmed  faith 
into  the  future.  And  as  he  looks  forward  his  eyes 
brighten,  his  bosom  heaves,  his  heart  expands,  his  hope 
enlarges,  earth  recedes,  his  surroundings  are  trans- 
formed; Caesar  drops  out  of  sight,  and  Christ  appears; 
the  executioner's  ax  is  welcomed  as  the  key  which 
opens  paradise;  the  block  is  a  stepping-stone  to  the 
7 


1)8  The  Story  of  the  New  Testament 

skies;  and  under  the  momentum  of  a  life  lived  upon 
earth,  but  based  on  eternal  principles,  "Paul  the  aged" 
sweeps  through  the  gates  of  a  felon's  death  to  wear  the 
crown  of  eternal  life  and  hear  the  music  of  the  Mas- 
ter's gracious  greeting  (4:  6-8). 

The  Epistle  to  Philemon 

When  Paul  sent  the  letter  to  the  Colossians,  he  sent 
along  with  Tychicus,  the  bearer  of  that  epistle,  another 
man,  Onesimus,  who  carried  to  Philemon  the  writing 
we  are  to  study  now.  (Col.  4:  7-9.)  It  might  seem  at 
first  glance  a  great  waste  of  time  to  give  much  consider- 
ation to  the  few  verses  that  make  up  this  little  letter; 
but  aside  from  the  fact  that  this  is  the  only  strictly 
personal  correspondence  that  has  survived  from  the 
pen  of  Paul,  there  is  a  fund  of  intrinsic  interest  and 
beauty  in  the  writing  itself  which  will  ever  attract  the 
attention  of  students  of  the  New  Testament  as  they 
read  the  romantic  story  of  the  rescue  of  the  runaway 
slave  and  see  in  this  little  scrap  of  literature  one  of  the 
finest  glimpses  of  a  truly  Christian  gentleman  which 
the  libraries  of  the  world  can  show. 

True  it  is  that  this  epistle  was  not  appreciated  by 
some  in  early  times.  Jerome  reports  some  as  saying: 
"Either  this  epistle  is  not  Paul's,  or  else,  if  it  is  Paul's, 
there  is  nothing  in  it  for  edification."  The  counter 
statement  of  this  father  is,  of  course,  far  more  true. 
His  judgment  is:  "It  is  flooded  with  gospel  grace." 
Certainly  the  greatest  New  Testament  students  have 
not  been  chary  in  their  praise  of  this  beautiful  gem 
in  the  casket  of  our  canon.  Bengel  declared  that  It 
was  "wonderfully  polite."  Francke  said:  "The  one  Epis- 
tle to  Philemon  surpasses  by  far  all  the  wisdom  of  the 
world."  Bishop  Ellicott  characterized  it  as  "an  ex- 
quisite piece  of  persuasive  tact  and  an  enduring  monu- 
ment of  Christian  courtesy."  Renan,  one  of  the  most 
expert  of  literary  critics,  called  it  "a  veritable  chef- 
d'muvre    in    the    art    of    letter-writing."      And    we    may 


Pastoral  and  Personal  Correspondence      99 

rest  assured  that  these  testimonies  are  true.  No  letter 
shows  Paul  in  a  better  light,  for  here  all  the  profes- 
sional is  in  abeyance  and  the  purely  personal  comes 
to  the  front.  The  apostle  and  the  polemic  retire,  and 
only  the  Christian  and  the  gentleman  appear. 

Great  performances  we  have  had  from  the  pen  of 
Paul!  The  pastoral  pleading  to  the  Thessalonians,  the 
emancipation  proclamation  to  the  Galatians,  the  great 
application  of  Christianity  to  social  conditions  we  have 
in  Corinthians,  the  wonderful  survey  of  the  religious 
history  of  the  race  we  have  studied  in  Romans,  the 
marvelous  sweep  of  Christological  conception  we  see 
in  Colossians — all  these  mighty  utterances  are  well 
worthy  of  all  our  effort  to  interpret  them.  But  in  all 
these  there  is  the  excitement  of  conflict,  the  inspiration 
of  a  great  theme,  the  heat  of  controversy,  the  marshal- 
ing of  logic,  and  the  consciousness  of  intellectual  and 
spiritual  supremacy  over  all  opponents.  But  In  this 
small  writing  all  these  large  things  are  lacking.  Who 
is  going  to  get  much  inspiration  out  of  the  sewers  of 
Rome?  What  chances  for  effective  climax  in  the  short 
space  of  twenty-five  verses?  True;  but  here  is  where 
the  great  man  really  shines,  not  with  the  light  bor- 
rowed from  his  surroundings,  but  in  the  clear  atmos- 
phere of  his  own  largeness  of  soul.  And,  after  all,  God's 
great  purpose  was  not  to  make  a  preacher  or  a  polemic 
or  a  pastor  out  of  Paul,  but  a  large-hearted  majestic 
man.  To  transform  the  narrow,  bigoted  soul,  the  proud 
Pharisee,  into  the  great  apoetle  to  the  Gentiles  is  in- 
deed a  work  of  divine  grace;  but  to  make  this  apostle 
a  father  to  one  of  society's  scapegoats  takes  a  grace  of 
even  a  diviner  sort,  for  it  is  much  easier  to  meet  the 
demands  of  any  profession  than  to  come  up  to  the 
measure  of  manhood.  Doubtless  there  have  been  per- 
fect physicians,  lawyers,  teachers,  preachers;  but  only 
God  has  been  a  perfect  man,  and  only  those  whose  life  Is 
hid  with  Christ  in  God  are  able  to  approximate  this  per- 
fection in  the  truest  and  highest  sense.    It  is  well  to  re- 


100         The  Story  of  the  New  Testament 

peat  that  Paul  is  never  greater  than  he  is  in  these  few 
lines  which  breathe  so  graciously  the  spirit  of  the  true 
Christian  gentleman. 

As  the  letter  is  so  short,  we  need  not  bother  ourselves 
with  anything  like  a  formal  analysis,  but  simply  set 
forth  the  places,  the  persons,  and  the  problem  involved. 

The  Places 

The  places  involved  are  two:  one  away  to  the  west 
(Rome,  where  Paul  is  in  captivity)  and  the  other  away 
to  the  east  (Colosse,  the  home  of  Philemon).  They 
were  distant,  as  the  crow  flies,  about  nine  hundred 
miles,  or  about  twelve  hundred  miles  by  the  usual  land 
or  water  routes.  Some,  indeed,  by  reason  of  this  great 
distance  have  thought  that  it  was  not  Rome  where  Paul 
was  in  prison,  but  Caesarea,  owing  to  the  fact  that  it 
would  be  much  easier  for  a  runaway  slave  to  reach  the 
Asian  prison  than  the  Roman.  But  such  reasoning  for- 
gets two  things:  First,  that  "all  roads  led  to  Rome"  in 
that  day;  and,  second,  that  a  runaway  slave  would  see 
to  it  that  he  put  as  much  distance  as  possible  between 
himself  and  his  aggrieved  master  and  would  look  upon 
the  crowded  imperial  city  as  the  best  place  in  the  world 
in  which  to  lose  himself. 

Colosse  belonged  to  the  district  of  the  Lycus  Valley, 
in  Asia  Minor,  a  section  of  the  country  to  which  Luke 
refers  in  Acts  19:  10,  when  he  declares  that,  as  a  result 
of  Paul's  continuing  in  Ephesus,  "All  they  that  dwelt 
in  Asia  heard  the  word  of  the  Lord,  both  Jews  and 
Greeks."  While  Paul  himself  does  not  seem  to  have 
preached  at  Colosse  (Col.  2:  1),  yet  this  evangelistic 
work  seems  to  have  been  superintended  by  him  from 
Ephesus  as  a  center. 

The  Persons 

The  persons  in  Rome  are,  first  of  all,  Paul  and  Tim- 
othy, whom  he  unites  with  himself  in  the  salutation. 
Presumably  It  is  just  at  the  middle  of  the  two  years' 


Pastoral  and  Personal  Correspondence     101 

imprisonment  referred  to  in  the  last  verse  of  Acts.  Suf- 
ficient time  has  elapsed  for  the  news  of  the  condition 
of  affairs  at  Colosse  to  reach  Paul,  and  enough  time 
has  passed  for  Onesimus  to  find  his  way  thither. 

The  home  at  Colosse  seems  to  be  made  up  of  three 
persons.  First,  there  is  Philemon.  Scholars  report  two 
other  occasions  when  this  name  figures  in  literature; 
both  times,  too,  it  is  in  connection  with  Phrygia,  from 
which  our  present  character  hails.  One  of  these  in- 
stances is  in  the  "Birds"  of  Aristophanes,  the  other  is 
the  familiar  story  of  Philemon  and  Baucis  as  narrated 
in  Ovid's  "Metamorphoses."  As  to  the  present  holder 
of  the  name,  it  is  sufficiently  clear  from  references  In 
this  letter  (1)  that  he  was  a  convert  of  Paul  (verse 
19),  (2)  that  he  was  rich  enough  to  own  slaves  and 
afford  hospitality  (verses  2,  5,  7),  and  (3)  that  he  was 
an  earnest  Christian  worker.  In  proof  of  this  last  point 
these  two  glimpses  suffice:  Paul  speaks  of  the  Church 
in  his  house  and  also  classes  him  as  one  of  his  fellow 
workers. 

The  second  person,  Apphia,  is  presumably  the  wife  of 
Philemon.  At  any  rate,  the  term  "sister"  applied  to 
her  (verse  2)  means  that  she  is  a  Christian  believer. 
The  third  name  among  the  addressees,  Archippus,  is 
taken  to  refer  to  their  son.  Once  again  (Col.  4:  17) 
Paul  refers  to  him  in  the  ever-memorable  words:  "Say 
to  Archippus,  Take  heed  to  the  ministry  which  thou 
hast  received  in  the  Lord,  that  thou  fulfill  it."  From 
this  it  is  evident  that  he  held  office  in  the  Church,  espe- 
cially in  view  of  the  fact  that  in  this  letter  Paul  calls 
him  a  "fellow  soldier,"  a  name  not  elsewhere  applied  by 
him  save  to  Epaphroditus  (Phil.  2:  25). 

But,  however  great  and  interesting  all  these  names, 
by  far  the  most  important  person  in  this  letter  is  not 
Paul  the  writer,  nor  Philemon  the  recipient,  but  Onesi- 
mus the  runaway  slave.  The  fact  that  he  figures  at  all 
in  the  New  Testament  literature  is  positive  proof  of  the 
transcendent  character  of  Christianity.  The  literature 
of  Greece  and  Rome  for  the  most  part  held  up  the  slave 


102         The  Story  of  the  New  Testament 

either  to  ridicule  or  reproach;  usually  it  was  both. 
Poets  aijd  philosophers  vied  with  each  other  in  heaping 
degradation  upon  this  member  of  society.  In  fact,  some 
went  so  far  as  to  deny  that  the  slave  class  was  a  section 
of  society  at  all,  even  going  to  the  extreme  of  denying 
the  slave  the  ordinary  faculties  of  a  man.  Aristotle,  in 
his  "Politics,"  declared,  "The  slave  is  simply  a  living 
chattel";  and  in  his  "Ethics"  he  affirmed,  "The  slave 
is  a  living  tool,  and  the  tool  is  a  lifeless  slave."  Varro, 
among  the  Romans,  in  classifying  the  implements  of 
agricultural  life,  says:  "There  are  three  sorts:  vocal, 
semivocal,  and  mute.  The  vocal  ones  are  slaves,  the 
semivocal  are  oxe7i,  and  the  mute  are  plows."  Even 
the  Roman  Digest  declared  that  a  slave  had  no  legal 
rights.  Being  without  protection  of  law,  it  is  no  won- 
der that  he  frequently  became  a  defier  of  law;  and 
some  of  the  bloodiest  chapters  of  ancient  history  are 
those  which  describe  the  outbreaks  of  the  slave  classes 
roused  to  revenge  against  the  conditions  that  enthralled 
them. 

But  more  than  being  a  slave,  Onesimus  was  a  Phry- 
gian slave;  and  throughout  all  ancient  literature  it  is 
the  Phrygian  slave  that  takes  the  palm  for  all  that  is 
supremely  villainous.  But  to  cap  the  climax,  he  was  a 
runaway  slave,  and  probably  a  thief  as  well  (verse 
18).  And  so  with  this  triple  incubus  of  infamy,  this 
degraded  creature,  despised  by  the  very  social  order 
that  had  robbed  him  of  every  inspiration  of  manhood 
and  degraded  him  to  the  low  level  of  a  beast — this 
wretch  hies  himself  off  to  Rome,  the  common  cesspool 
of  ancient  civilization,  with  doubtless  no  other  thought 
than  to  drown  whatever  remnant  of  conscience  he  may 
have  possessed  in  the  iniquity  there  rampant  and  to 
wreak  what  vengeance  he  could  upon  the  social  order 
that  had  made  his  misery  possible.  But  the  runaway 
slave  met  the  great  Christian  preacher,  and  all  was 
changed.  How  did  he  meet  him?  Did  he  happen  to 
run  across  his  fellow  countryman  Epaphras?  and  was 
he  by  him  lured  into  the  presence  of  the  loving  evan- 


Pastoral  and  Personal  Correspondence     U)'^ 

gelist?  Or  was  he  in  need  of  food?  and  did  necessity 
strengthen  his  memory  sufficiently  to  recall  in  some 
dim  fashion  the  name  of  the  man  who  had  such  a  hold 
on  the  heartstrings  of  the  old  home  in  Colosse?  Or 
was  it  that  conscience,  so  long  asleep,  began  to  rouse 
itself  amjd  an  environment  of  wickedness  greater  than 
that  his  own  heart  had  ever  conceived?  Was  it  any 
one  of  these  things  that  finally  caused  him  to  wend  his 
way  to  the  hired  house  of  "Paul  the  aged"?  "We  know 
not.  But,  at  any  rate,  he  met  Paul,  was  converted,  and 
evidently  gave  great  promise  of  becoming  a  most  effi- 
cient Christian  worker.  What  a  miracle  that  Paul  should 
interest  himself  in  a  slave,  and  that  this  slave  should 
become  his  friend,  yea,  more,  a  beloved  son,  begotten 
in  his  bonds!  Aristotle  was  fond  of  saying  that  it  was 
not  right  for  one  to  be  a  friend  to  a  slave  any  more 
than  to  a  horse  or  an  ox.  But  Paul's  vision  was  keener; 
he  could  see  distinctions  that  were  impossible  to  "the 
mighty  Stagirite."  By  the  wisdom  not  of  this  world  he 
could  see  the  difference  between  an  animal  and  a  man. 
Christianity  does  easily  what  science  dares  not  at- 
tempt: it  sees  the  divine  spark  in  even  the  most  de- 
generate types.    So  Paul  could  love  a  slave. 

The  Prohlem. 

All  this  might  have  been,  and  yet  we  should  not  have 
been  studying  the  letter  to-day.  The  letter  exists  be- 
cause of  the  problem  that  was  precipitated  by  the  con- 
version of  Onesimus.  As  his  name  indicates,  he  had 
once  given  promise  of  being  a  good  slave,  for  his  mas- 
ter had  dubbed  him  "Profitable."  Now  he  had  proved 
recreant;  and  had  not  Paul  crossed  his  path  and  Christ 
entered  into  his  heart,  doubtless  he  would  have  gone 
to  his  death  a  degenerate.  But  the  moment  he  was 
converted  the  gospel  laid  upon  him  the  responsibility 
of  confession  and  restitution  so  far  as  lay  in  his  power. 
But  the  sequel,  if  he  should  be  returned  to  his  master! 
Who  could  doubt,  knowing  the  condition  of  the  times, 
what  would  happen?    Crucifixion  was  considered  a  mild 


104         The  Story  of  the  New  Testament 

punishment  in  such  a  case  as  this.  In  fact,  the  cross 
was  the  constant  terror  of  the  slaves  who  incurred 
even  the  slight  displeasure  of  their  masters.  One  of 
the  most  pathetic  passages  in  all  literature  is  where  a 
slave  in  one  of  Plautus's  plays  protests:  "Don't  threaten 
me;  I  know  the  cross  will  be  my  grave.  There  were 
my  ancestors  planted — father,  grandfather,  great-grand- 
father, great-great-grandfather."  Think  of  a  man 
whose  only  genealogical  tree  was  a  forest  of  crosses! 
For  what  else  could  Onesimus  hope?  Still  the  law  of 
Christian  discipleship  is  inexorable;  he  could  not  be  a 
true  Christian  in  Rome  and  not  make  an  honest  effort 
to  right  the  wrong  he  had  done  his  master  in  Colosse. 
Therefore  he  is  willing  to  return,  though  it  takes  him 
from  the  side  of  his  one  friend  and  may  carry  him  to 
a  cross.  Paul's  phase  of  the  problem  was  this:  Here 
was  a  grand  illustration  of  the  power  of  the  gospel,  "& 
brand  snatched  from  the  burning."  He  had  already 
written  a  letter  to  the  Romans  (and  a  majestic  message 
it  was);  but  here  was  a  living  epistle,  a  slave  trans- 
formed into  a  saint,  a  beast  made  into  a  brother,  and 
his  heart  was  burning  with  love  to  his  benefactor.  |  He 
was  eager  to  stay  with  him  and  by  a  life  of  constant 
service  to  some  extent  repay  the  infinite  debt  of  grati- 
tude he  owed  to  the  man  who  had  befriended  him  in 
the  hour  of  his  sore  distress.  What  an  argument  for 
the  religion  of  Jesus  did  Paul  see  in  the  slave  Onesi- 
mus, now  a  redeemed  freeman  in  the  Lord!  What  sal- 
vation might  come  to  the  slums  of  Rome  if  he  could 
only  retain  this  miracle  of  grace  as  an  advertisement 
of  Christ's  power  to  cleanse  and  purify!  There  is  no 
doubt  that  this  little  letter,  under  the  stress  of  these 
temptations,  caused  Paul  more  real  effort  than  all  his 
fulminations  in  Galatians  and  his  inspiring  exhorta- 
tions  in  Romans  and  Corinthians.  There  he  was  stulti- 
fying his  foes  and  edifying  his  friends;  but  here  he  is 
crucifying  himself  as  he  teare  out  his  very  heart  (verse 
12)  and  sends  away  from  him  the  man  that  would 
mean    most    to    his    work    and    to    himself    in    the    toil- 


Pastoral  and  Personal  Correspondence     105 

someness  and  lonesomeness  of  his  Roman  Imprison- 
ment. 

But  not  Onesimus's  fears  nor  Paul's  desires  are  al- 
lowed to  control.  Philemon,  the  master,  has  rights  that 
must  be  respected,  and  this  is  the  phase  of  the  problem 
that  decides  the  question.  Paul  pens  his  greatest  sen- 
tence when  he  declares  (verse  14):  "But  without  thy 
mind  I  was  not  willing  to  do  anything."  For  here  he 
declares  that  he  will  not  sacrifice  right  at  any  time  or 
under  any  circumstances  to  pleasure  or  convenience. 
And  Paul  never  rises  higher  than  when  in  verse  8  he 
declares:  "Though  I  have  all  boldness  to  enjoin,  yet  for 
love's  sake  I  rather  beseech."  But  while  Philemon  has 
his  rights  as  a  master,  he  has  also  his  duty  ^s  a  Chris- 
tian; and  to  this  sense  of  Christian  obligation  Paul 
makes  appeal  as  well:  "For  perhaps  he  was  therefore 
parted  from  thee  for  a  season,  that  thou  shouldst  have 
him  forever;  no  longer  as  a  servant,  but  more  than  a 
servant,  a  brother  beloved." 

Need  we  ask  whether  Paul  was  disappointed  in  his 
appeal?  Philemon  could  not  refuse  if  he  were  the 
Christian  Paul  thought  him  to  be  and  knew  he  was 
(see  verses  4-7);  and  it  needs  only  a  bit  of  historic 
imagination  to  picture  the  home-coming  when  Philemon, 
Apphia,  and  Archippus  welcomed  back  the  penitent 
Onesimus.  Here  is  indeed  a  real  prodigal's  return, 
with  no  elder  brother's  malice  to  mar  the  beauty  of  the 
scene. 

And  right  here  in  the  heavenly  atmosphere  of  this 
far-away  Colossian  home  scene  let  us,  following  the 
order  of  our  English  Bible,  take  our  leave  of  Paul  and 
with  him  render  grateful  thanks  to  God  for  the  power 
of  a  gospel  that  makes  God's  kingdom  come  on  earth. 
No  wonder  that  when  his  time  came  to  leave  this 
world  the  man  who  in  the  providence  of  God  had  made 
this  scene,  possible  cried  out  in  humble  yet  exultant 
faith:  "I  am  ready  to  go;  .  .  .  henceforth  I  have 
a  crown." 


106         The  Story  of  Ihc  New  T^^siament 

Thought  Questions 

1.  What  are  the  pastoral  epistles?  Why  so  called?  And 
should  our  study  begin  from  the  viewpoint  of  the 
Church,  the  institution,  or  from  that  of  the  personal 
relations  of  Paul  and  his  pastoral  helpers? 

2.  What  are  the  biographical  facts,  hints,  and  suppo- 
sitions available  concerning  Titus? 

3.  Show  the  appropriateness  to  the  people  of  Crete  of 
the  letter  to  Titus. 

4.  Give  the  story  of  Timothy,  including  Paul's  friend- 
ship for  him  and  his  services  to  his  father  in  the  faith. 

5.  How  do  you  meet  the  critical  difficulties  arising 
from  the  many  personal  reminiscences  in  the  letters  to 
Timothy  and  Titus,  matters  that  they  must  certainly 
have  been  quite  familiar  with? 

6.  What  sort  of  a  change  of  environment  meets  you 
as  you  pass  from  Titus  in  his  diocese  on  the  Island  of 
Crete  to  Timothy  in  the  city  of  Ephesus? 

7.  What  change  in  Paul's  own  condition  had  occurred 
between  the  writing  of  the  first  and  the  second  letters  to 
Timothy,  and  how  did  that  change  affect  the  outlook  and 
mood  of  the  writing? 

8.  What  three  characteristics  of  the  letter  to  Philemon 
impart  to  this  brief  writing  an  interest  out  of  propor- 
tion to  its  length? 

9.  Rome,  Colosse — the  place  where  Paul  was  impris- 
oned and  the  place  where  Philemon  lived — what  story 
do  the  names  and  geographic  separation  of  these  two 
cities  tell  of  the  extension  and  influence  of  the  gospel 
in  Paul's  later  days? 

10.  Give  the  story  of  the  flight  and  conversion  of  Onesl- 
mus  and  explain  its  significance  in  the  light  of  the 
ancient  institution  of  slavery. 

11.  In  what  difficult  situation  was  Paul  placed  by  his 
new  relation  to  Onesimus,  and  how  did  he  meet  it? 


VII.  TWO  CATHOLIC  BROTHERS 


Passages  for  Daily  Readings 

Sunday. — Short  References  to  These  Brethren  of  Our 
Lord.  Matthew  13:  55;  John  7:  5;  1  Corinthians  15:  7; 
Acts  15:  13;  Galatians  1:  19;  Jude  1:  1;  James  1:  1. 

Monday. — The  Destruction  of  Evil.    Jude  3-16. 

Tuesday. — The  Salvation  of  the  Sinning  and  a  Dox- 
ology.    Jude  17-25. 

Wednesday. — Wisdom  for  the  Tempted.  James  1: 
2-18;  3:  13-18. 

Thursday. — Common  Yet  Fatal  Delusions.  James  1: 
22-27;   2:  1-9,  14-25. 

Friday. — More  Fatal  Delusions.  James  3:  1-12;  4: 
1-10,  13-17;  5:  1-6. 

Saturday. — Counsels  of  Wisdom.     James  5:  7-20. 


Introduction 
Having  passed  rapidly  in  review  the  Pauline  let- 
ters, we  now  take  up  the  remaining  books  of  the  epis- 
tolary section  of  the  New  Testament.  Here  we  have 
some  of  the  most  potent  and  precious  documents  in 
all  our  Christian  literature;  but  at  the  same  time 
these  writings  present  many  perplexing  problems  as  to 
date,  authorship,  occasion,  and  general  .purpose.  In 
order  to  keep  our  study  of  these  portions  of  Scripture 
from  degenerating  into  a  mere  critical  melange,  we 
shall  have  to  keep  the  individual  books  constantly  be- 
fore our  minds  and  seek  to  study,  not  aljout  them,  but 
to  study  the  'books  themselves.  Seven  of  these  epistles 
have  come  down  to  us  under  the  caption  of  "catholic" 
or  "general,"  the  idea  being  that  they  are  sent  primarily 
to  no  particular  Church  or  individual,  but  have  as  their 
destination  the  Church  universal.  The  term  is,  of 
course,  unhappy,  for  more  than  one  of  the  seven  have 
a  particular  destination;  but  as  it  is  a  traditional  for- 
mula of  identification,  we  shall  retain  it.   For  our  present 

(107) 


lOS         The  Story  of  the  New  Testament 

study  we  will  select  two  of  these  seven,  Jiide  and  James. 
If  these  writings  are  to  mean  much  to  us,  we  shall  have 
to  let  them  tell  their  own  story.  We  begin,  then,  with 
the  shorter  of  these  two  and,  opening  our  New  Testa- 
ment at  the  Epistle  of  Jude. 

we  ask  one  or  two  questions:  Who  was  the  author? 
Who  were  the  recipients?  What  was  the  occasion  that 
united  these  in  correspondence?  What  is  the  present- 
day  message  of  this  lightning  stroke  of  righteous  Indig- 
nation? 

As  to  the  matter  of  authorship,  the  answer  is  brief — 
in  fact,  too  brief  for  our  critical  curiosity — and  so  we 
have  to  supplement  its  brevity  with  our  own  opinion. 
"Jude,  a  slave  of  Jesus  Christ  and  brother  of  James," 
from  my  viewpoint,  means  the  Jude  of  Matthew  13:  55, 
the  brother  of  Jesus,  who,  with  James  and  the  rest  of 
his  family,  withheld  his  faith  until  after  the  resurrec- 
tion. (See  John  7:  5  and  1  Cor.  15:  7.)  The  addressees 
are  even  less  definite,  and  who  they  are  no  man  can  say. 
"Those  that  are  called  beloved  in  God  the  Father  and 
kept  for  Jesus  Christ"  is  a  description  that  would  fit  any 
Christian  congregation  from  the  sands  of  Sahara  to  the 
snows  of  Caucasus  or  from  the  Ganges  to  Gibraltar. 

But  though  the  answers  to  our  first  two  questions  are 
not  as  full  as  we  should  like  them  to  be,  when  we  come 
to  our  third  and  fourth  queries  we  have  in  the  letter 
itself  suflficient  to  satisfy  all  legitimate  curiosity.  From 
verses  three  and  four  we  gather  that  the  author  was 
just  about  to  engage  in  writing  a  letter  doncerning 
what  he  calls  their  "common  salvation"  when  a  neces- 
sity of  an  altogether  different  character  confronted  him. 
He  was  suddenly  forced  to  desist  from  this  purpose  and 
write  hurriedly  to  them  to  warn  them  of  a  sudden  and 
huge  danger  that  had  arisen  and  to  instruct  them  how 
they  were  to  resist  it  and  so  contend  earnestly  for  the 
faith.  It  is  necessary  for  us,  then,  to  recognize  that 
this  epistle  is  the  sequel  to  an  impertinent  Interrup- 
tion— a  thing  that  was,  so  to  speak,  thrust  upon  the 


7^wo  Catholic  Brothers  109 

writer;  a  thing  that  he  did  not  start  out  primarily  to 
do.  This  may  account  in  part  for  its  fierceness  of  at- 
tack and  its  somewhat  relentless  spirit — a  sort  of  good 
work  to  which  the  author  was  provoked.  What,  then, 
is  the  occasion  that  precipitated  this  tirade?  "Certain 
men"  had  crept  in  privily  and  were  using  the  cloak  of 
Christianity  to  cover  up  all  sorts  of  horrid  and  wicked 
practices.  It  was  a  time  then  of  great  religious  defec- 
tion on  the  part  of  many.  Jude  feels  it  to  be  his 
bounden  duty  to  step  in  and  save  his  readers,  if  he 
can,  from  being  caught  in  this  eddy  of  evil  influence. 
He  therefore  seeks  to  do  two  things:  (1)  To  show  that 
all  history,  all  nature,  and  all  prophecy  are  a  unit  in 
declaring  destruction  to  such  sinners;  and  (2)  to  use 
every  argument  of  a  positive  sort  to  instruct  and  in- 
spire his  readers  and  show  what  is  the  duty  of  a  Chris- 
tian in  such  a  time  of  religious  defection.  This  first 
or  negative  part  is  treated  in  verses  five  to  sixteen. 
This  section  may,  indeed,  be  called 

The  Doom  of  Evil 

It  is  inwrought  in  our  consciousness;  and  yet  we, 
along  with  Jude's  readers,  have  to  be  constantly  re- 
minded of  this  fundamental  fact  of  the  universe  In 
which  we  live  and  of  which  we  are  a  part.  In  a  time 
when  unbelief  and  error  swoop  down  with  all  their 
terrifying  power  we  need  to  look  back,  says  Jude,  at 
the  monuments  standing  all  along  the  shores  of  moral 
history.  The  testimony  is  unanimous.  Whether  we 
view  evil  in  its  corporate  capacity  or  in  its  individual 
expression,  the  message  of  doom  is  the  same.  "Chosen 
people,"  though  twice  saved,  are  not  Immune  from  the 
doom  of  a  righteous  God.  Angels  in  everlasting  bonds 
kept  under  darkness  attest  the  awful  fact,  and  cities 
in  their  ruin  add  their  mute  and  mournful  witness  to 
the  solemn  truth  that  sin  must  be  destroyed.  These 
errorists,  however,  in  spite  of  the  eloquent  protests  of 
history  and  in  spite  of  the  supreme  example  of  Michael, 
unite  in  their  threefold  stream  of  evil — unbelief,  sensu- 


110         The  Stonj  of  the  New  Testament 

ality,  and  rebellion.  They  are  the  legitimate  descend- 
ants of  three  of  the  most  degenerate  types  known  to 
human  annals:  Cain,  the  first  murderer;  Balaam,  the 
false  prophet;  and  Korah,  the  archrebel.  It  took  all 
these  three  to  furnish  the  spirit  that  animates  these 
horrid  sinners. 

These  three,  a  veritable  triple  alliance  of  infernal 
diabolism,  unite  their  streams  of  pollution  in  these  sin- 
ners of  Jude's  day.  How  can  he  hold  out  any  hope 
for  them?  Their  character  has  determined  their  doom; 
for  not  only  does  Scripture  prophesy  beforehand  their 
destiny,  but  the  very  material  order  marshals  itself  in 
mute  but  menacing  condemnation.  Hence  all  nature  is 
ransacked  for  nideous  images  to  picture  forth  the  dan- 
ger they  threaten  to  the  cause  of  truth  and  the  doom 
they  are  to  call  down  upon  themselves  from  the  hands 
of  a  just  and  holy  God.  They  are,  says  Jude,  begin- 
ning at  the  lowest  depth,  hidden  rocks  lurking  like 
skulking  enemies  to  cause  shipwreck  to  the  Church, 
hiding  themselves  in  the  guise  of  brethren  and  even 
capable  of  the  deep-dyed  hypocrisy  of  partaking  of  the 
sacred  love  feast  and,  while  pretending  to  shepherd  the 
flock,  are  found  to  be  fearlessly  feeding  their  own  greedi- 
ness. The  sky  is  then  searched  for  a  figure.  They  are 
clouds  without  water,  deceptions  of  the  grossest  type, 
promising  refreshment  but  giving  none,  having  no  sta- 
bility, but  whisked  hither  and  thither  by  the  ever- 
changing  winds.  Earth  then  is  visited  for  another  sym- 
bol of  these  sinners.  They  are  late  autumn  trees,  bare 
trunks  and  branches  stripped  of  both  fruit  and  foliage, 
standing  in  all  their  horrid  nakedness  like  gaunt  skele- 
tons. But  for  them  no  future  vernal  breezes  shall  bring 
the  boon  of  life.  They  are  twice  dead  and  plucked  up 
by  the  roots.  They  have  severed  themselves  from  their 
only  fount  of  life  in  that  they  have  denied  their  Lord. 
Hence  they  have  no  vitality,  no  fruitage,  no  future  save 
putrefaction.  The  deep  is  again  visited.  This  time 
they  are  wild  waves  of  the  sea  leaping  and  plunging  in 
confusion  and  disorder — emblem  of  that  infinite  unrest 


Two  Catholic  Brothers  111 

that  pervades  the  soul  of  the  ungodly.  And  as  they 
fret  and  lash  themselves  by  reason  of  the  storms  that 
beat  upon  them,  their  only  output  is  the  froth  and 
foam  of  their  own  ineradicable  shame.  These  awful 
figures  reach  their  climax  at  last  when  the  stellar  world 
is  appealed  to  and  a  likeness  is  suggested  between  these 
unstable,  ever-shifting,  uprooted  characters  and  the  wan- 
dering stars — that  is,  sinning  worlds  which  have  broken 
over  the  bounds  of  their  appointed  station  and  go  hur- 
tling through  the  infinite  void,  for  which  there  remains 
nothing  save  the  blackness  of  darkness  forever. 

The  writer's  characterization  and  condemnation  is 
complete.  The  force  of  nature  can  go  no  farther.  He 
has,  however,  a  word  of  prophecy  with  which  he  closes 
this  doleful  section.  This  he  finds  in  the  apocryphal 
book  of  Enoch,  wherein  the  death  knell  of  evil  and  un- 
godliness is  sounded  by  no  less  an  arm  than  that  of 
Jehovah  himself,  and  the  hearts  of  myriads  of  his  saints 
are  mada  to  rejoice  with  him  in  the  eternal  victory  of 
righteousness  over  sin. 

We  now  come  to  the  second  or  positive  section  of 
Jude's  deliverance  (verses  17-25).  If  in  a  time  of  re- 
ligious decline  we  are  to  look  to  the  past  and  trace  the 
terror  of  the  Lord  as  it  registers  itself  in  the  destruc- 
tion of  all  who  incarnate  principles  of  ungodliness,  we 
do  well.  But  there  is  still  another  duty,  that  of  con- 
structively devoting  ourselves  to  the  maintenance  of 
our  faith,  to  the  development  of  our  Christian  charac- 
ter, and  to  the  largest  expression  of  our  religious  energy. 
So  Jude  issues 

Three  Suggestions  of  a  Positive  Sort 

(1)  A  call  to  rememher  the  words  of  the  messengers 
who  first  brought  to  them  the  knowledge  of  Christ;  (2) 
a  call  to  keep  themselves  in  the  love  of  God  by  praying 
in  the  Holy  Spirit  and  ever  looking  with  earnest  con- 
fidence for  the  realization  of  the  fullness  of  life  that 
the  Lord  Jesus  has  so  mercifully  promised  and  pro- 
vided; and  (3)  a  call  to  service  in  the  interest  of  oth- 


112         The  Story  of  the  Neio  Testament 

ers,  made  all  the  more  imperative  because  at  a  time 
of  religious  defection  the  hearts  of  all  men  run  to  and 
fro,  and  in  the  surging  seas  of  doubt  and  storm  there 
are  many  that  may  be  saved  if  proper  means  are  enter- 
prised. 

The  need  for  energetic  action  is  seen  by  Jude  to 
grow  out  of  the  fact  that  at  such  times  of  sifting 
there  are  at  least  three  classes  of  people.  As  he  says 
(verses  22,  23),  there  are  some  who  are  simply  in  doubt. 
On  these  have  nlercy:  a  word,  a  look,  a  handgrasp,  a 
misconception  cleared  up,  a  new  theory  of  religion  sug- 
gested, a  friendly  deed — almost  anything  will  win  their 
wavering  wills.  They  are  spiritually  in  unstable  equili- 
brium. Many  of  these  can  be  drawn  into  the  kingdom 
in  a  time  of  religious  defection  by  a  simple  and  sincere 
proof  of  Christ's  presence  in  the  life  of  his  followers. 

There  is  a  second  class.  These  have  acquired  a  down- 
ward momentum;  they  are  on  the  way  to  the  devouring 
flame.  If  anything  is  done,  it  must  be  done  quickly. 
Some,  says  Jude,  if  they  are  saved  at  all,  must  be 
snatched  and  snatched  immediately;  but  they  can  be 
and  will  be  if  Christians  are  faithful  to  their  obliga- 
tions and  opportunities.  •  They  will  be  brands  plucked 
from  the  burning  and  will  add  all  the  more  glory  to 
the  Saviour's  diadem. 

But  there  is  a  third  class.  Such  times  of  religious 
defection  reveal  deep-seated  iniquities  incarnate  in  hu- 
man form,  so  rotten  in  their  inherent  depravity,  so  hell- 
ward  bent  in  their  moral  momentum,  so  close  to  the 
brink  of  the  bottomless  pit  that  we  dare  not  exercise 
over  them  even  a  savior's  sympathy  unless  it  be  ac- 
companied by  a  wholesome  fear  of  personal  contamina- 
tion. To  such  awful  depths  can  ungodliness  go  as  to 
endanger  the  foundations  of  the  godly  themselves! 

The  Triumphant  Benediction 

The  letter,  however,  does  not  stop  here.  Who  is  suf- 
ficient for  these  crises  precipitated  by  the  inroads  of 
irreligion  and  infidelity  such  as  are  characteristic  of  a 


Two  Catholic  Brothers  113 

time  of  religious  defection?  Jude's  final  and  conclusive 
answer  is  given  in  one  of  the  most  consoling,  compre- 
hensive, and  convincing  benedictions  the  New  Testa- 
ment contains.  What  are  we  to  contrast  with  the  forces 
of  ungodliness  rampant  in  their  rage  and  clothing  them- 
selves in  all  the  spacious  and  specious  dress  of  hypocrisy 
and  heinousness?  These,  says  Jude,  and  says  history, 
and  says  Scripture,  and  says  nature,  are  all  temporary. 
Evil  is  weak.  Its  instruments  are  ephemeral;  its  power 
is  puerile;  its  glory  is  shame;  its  dominion  is  of  short 
if  painful  duration.  All  the  real  glory,  the  real  majesty, 
the  real  dominion,  the  real  power  before  all  time  and 
now  and  for  evermore  belong  to  God,  not  to  the  ungodly. 
And  he  is  able  not  only  to  guard  us  from  stumbling 
here  in  times  of  religious  defection  and  spiritual  dearth, 
but  he  is  able  also  to  set  us  once  for  all  before  the 
presence  of  his  glory  without  blemish  in  exceeding 
joy.  Wherefore  Jude  would  say  with  his  brother  James: 
Count  it  the  greatest  joy  of  all  when  you  fall  upon 
times  of  religious  defection;  for  these  are  the  times 
when  the  atmosphere  of  earth  is  clarified,  when  the 
faith  of  men  is  purified,  and  when  the  population  of 
God's  true  kingdom  is  multiplied. 

The  Epistle  of  James 

From  the  short  and  sharp  bugle  blast  of  Jude  we  now 
turn  to  the  longer  and  more  comprehensive  message  of 
his  brother  James.  While  Jude  is  occupied  with  one 
single  temptation,  James  discusses  well-nigh  the  whole 
round  of  possible  tests  that  moral  probation  supplies. 
A  full  volume  could  be  written  on  the  mere  history  of 
criticism  pertaining  to  this  book;  but  we  have  to  con- 
tent ourselves  with  giving  a  fairly  full  discussion  of 
the  contents  and  the  bare  mention  of  two  or  three  other 
points.    Our  first  task  is  to  determine,  if  possible 

The  General  Sulyject  of  the  Writing 

Some  critics  seem  to  be  unable  to  discover  any  great 
theme  in  these  several  chapters  and  so  call  it  simply  a 
8 


114         The  Story  of  the  New  Testament 

string  of  detached  moral  precepts,  hanging  together 
with  more  or  less  affinity,  logical  or  verbal.  Such,  how- 
ever, is  the  inevitable  outcome  of  that  criticism,  whether 
conservative  or  radical,  which  looks  upon  it  as  a  mere 
handful  of  religious  precepts.  If  we  look  at  it  as  the 
contribution  of  a  great  mind  to  the  understanding  of 
the  phenomena  of  the  religious  life,  particularly  as  that 
life  has  been  revealed  in  its  ultimate  perfection  in 
Christ  and  is  committed  to  the  care  and  cultivation  of 
the  Christian  community,  we  shall,  I  think,  get  a  little 
closer  to  the  message  of  the  book  and  at  the  same  time 
gain  large  enlightenment  for  the  proper  direction  of  our 
own  thinking. 

By  consulting  verse  two  of  chapter  one  we  see  that 
the  theme  he  is  going  to  discuss  is  the  attitude  that  his 
readers  should  assume  to  the  varied  trials  that  come 
into  their  life.  In  other  words,  he  sets  for  himself  one 
of  the  standing  questions  of  all  religious  investigation, 
How  shall  a  man  react  upon  his  environment  at  any 
particular  time  so  as  to  advance  and  not  imperil  his 
religious  character?  We  cannot  develop  moral  fiber 
save  through  the  testing  and  toughening  processes  of 
trial.  Therefore  we  are  to  count  it  all  joy  when  trials 
come.  We  may  fall  under  them,  but  that  will  be  due  to 
our  lack.  If  we  use  them  aright,  we  shall  ascend  to 
fullness  of  stature.  Certainly,  then,  some  great  prin- 
ciple is  necessary  if  we  are  to  discover  the  art  of 
properly  using  the  experiences  of  life.  This  gives  James 
a  chance  to  set  forth  his  conception  of  the  really  funda- 
mental positive  principle  of  religion.  This,  he  says,  is 
wisdom.  To  live  aright,  man  must  have  tl^is.  God  is 
its  Author  &nd  only  Source.  To  get  it  we  must  ask 
of  him,  and  we  must  ask  in  the  proper  spirit  of  whole- 
hearted desire.  This  is  James's  description  of  this  great 
boon:  "The  wisdom  that  is  from  above  is  first  pure,  then 
peaceable,  gentle,  easy  to  be  entreated,  full  of  mercy 
and  good  fruits,  without  variance,  without  hypocrisy" 
(3:  17).     If  a  man  has  this,  he  is  thoroughly  prepared 


Tivo  Catholic  Brothers  115 

for  all  the  varied  assaults  that  environment  can  possibly 
make. 

Wisdom  Applied  in  Poverty  or  Plenty 

James  shows  by  several  illustrations  what  he  means 
hjr  the  application  of  this  "wisdom"  to  the  manifold 
testings  of  life.  The  first  two  are  very  general.  In 
chapter  1,  verses  9-11,  he  instances  the  commonest  phase 
of  temptation — namely,  that  arising  from  the  possession 
or  non-possession  of  material  goods.  The  man  that  is 
possessed  with  the  divine  wisdom  can  glorify  either 
poverty  or  plenitude,  for  he  knows  that  wealth  is  but 
a  passing  thing,  like  the  flower  of  the  field.  In  chapter 
1,  verses  12-18,  he  indicates  another  temptation  of  a 
most  universal  kind — namely,  the  temptation  to  credit 
all  the  tragic  results  of  our  temptations  to  God.  No, 
says  James,  the  man  that  has  the  divine  wisdom  in 
him  will  repudiate  such  a  slander  upon  the  name  and 
character  of  God.  If  our  temptation  ends  disastrously, 
it  is  because  we  have  been  baited  by  our  own  desire. 
This  desire,  when  married  to  the  will,  conceives  sin; 
and  sin,  when  it  is  finished,  brings  forth  death. 

Having  disposed  of  these  two  most  universal  types 
of  temptation,  the  writer  now  proceeds  to  more  specific 
ones  growing  out  of  the  corporate  relations  of  his  read- 
ers. They  constitute  a  community  of  Christians.  They 
assemble  for  worship  in  their  meeting  place  from  time 
to  time.  What  are  some  of  the  temptations  that  assail 
men  under  such  conditions?  One  of  the  most  usual  is 
the  temptation  to  substitute 

Hearing  for  Doing 

In  James's  day,  as  in  ours,  many  people  seemed  to 
think  that  listening  to  sermons,  saying  prayers,  and 
singing  hymns  were  all  the  "service"  they  should  per- 
form. In  some  short  and  sharp  sentences  he  calls  all 
such  back  from  this  folly,  and  in  the  spirit  of  Him 
who  said,  "If  ye  know  these  things,  happy  are  ye  if  ye 
do  them,"  James  is  emboldened   to  give  a  description 


IIG         The  Story  of  the  New  Testament 

of  how  real  religion  should  make  itself  known.  The 
manifestation  of  the  religious  spirit,  says  this  common- 
sense  teacher,  does  not  consist  so  much  in  what  we 
hear  as  in  how  we  heed— not  talk  but  ivalk  is  Its  true 
criterion.  It  does  not  rush  through  a  man's  mouth  in  a 
veritable  Niagara  of  verbiage  so  much  as  it  flwvs 
through  his  hands  in  gentle  and  sympathetic  ministra- 
tion to  the  helpless  and  permeates  his  life  with  the 
sweetness  that  always  distills  from  the  fragrant  flower 
of  a  pure  heart  (1:  19-27). 

The  next  community  temptation  the  author  discusses 
is  a  very  modern  as  well  as  a  very  ancient  one — the  test 
presented  when  the  rich  and  the  poor  meet  together  in 
the  house  of  God._  In  chapter  2,  verses  1-9,  we  have  one 
of  the  most  biting  satires  contained  in  all  literature. 
It  is  the  picture  of  the 

Gushing  Usher, 

who  fawns  on  the  rich  and  frowns  on  the  poor,  who 
with  much  parade  sails  down  the  aisle,  bowing  and 
scraping,  to  carry  Colonel  Clotheshorse  (see  verse  3) 
to  a  fine  seat  where  he  can  see  and  be  seen,  and  with 
scant  ceremony  chucks  Old  Patch-Pants  into  a  dingy 
corner  or  uses  him  as  a  floor  mat  under  his  own  pew. 
And  all  this,  says  James,  because  you  have  not  sense 
enough  to  tell  the  difference  between  a  man  and  what 
he  happens  to  have  or  not  to  have  upon  his  back  or  on 
his  fingers!  If  you  had,  says  James,  the  divine  wisdom 
of  Him  who  saw  in  Dives  a  candidate  for  hell  and  in 
Lazarus  a  child  of  Abraham,  you  would  not  formulate 
such  wicked  decisions  simply  on  the  basis  of  broadcloth! 
It  is  the  sheerest  folly  to  seek  to  maintain  in  such  an 
atmosphere  of  respect  of  persons  that  we  are  followers 
of  Jesus.  Any  sort  of  wisdom  would  at  least  suggest 
a  suspense  of  judgment.  To  kowtow  to  one  man  because 
he  wears  rings  and  to  kick  out  another  because  he 
wears  corns  is  taking  rather  snap  judgment.  The  rings 
on  one  hand  may  be  stolen,  and  the  corns  on  the  other 
may    be    the    reward    of   honest    toil.      Now,    of   course, 


Two  Catholic  Ihoihers  117 

James  does  not  say  they  arc,  but  he  does  say  that  the 
Kushing  usher  and  the  fawning  congregation  never  took 
the  trouble  to  rainc  the  (lucstiun.  This  in  itself  is  the 
basis  of  his  condemnation,  and  his  Christlike  criticism 
is  not  untimely  even  for  our  day. 

Another  temptation  (verses  9-13)  arises  from  our  at- 
tempt to  run  the  moral  life  on  the  departmental  plan. 
We  are  tempted  to  do  the  conunands  that  suit  our  con- 
venience or  our  preference  and  forego  those  that  cross 
our  purposes.  This,  says  James,  strikes  at  the  integrity 
of  individual  character.  We  are  to  be  integers,  not  frac- 
tions; whole  and  holy  men,  not  fragments.  Hence  he 
pleads  for 

Tfic  Solidarity  of  Duty 

If  a  man  have  the  divine  wisdom,  he  will  see  that 
God  is  one  and  his  law  is  one,  that  the  attitude  of  our 
wills  should  be  constant.  Only  so  can  we  arrive  at  that 
standard  necessary  to  pass  muster  when  we  are  judged 
by  a  law  of  liberty. 

In  chapter  2,  verses  14-26,  we  have  in  all  probability 
the  most  familiar  passage  in  this  writing.  It  has  figured 
very  largely  in  theological  controversy  and  is,  doubtless, 
the  main  reason  why  Luther,  for  example,  called  James 
"an  ei)istle  right  strawy."  It  Is  from  our  analysis  of 
the  author's  purpose  his  way  of  presenting  another 
temptation— namely,  the  temptation  of  confusing  say- 
ing and  doing.  He  uses  the  very  graphic  illustration 
of  the  shivering  and  hungry  beggars  and,  under  the 
parable  of  the  wordy  l)ut  worklcss  philanthropist,  satir- 
izes the  folly  of  flunking  that  things  are  so  simply  be- 
cause we  say  they  are  so.  You  might  as  well,  says  he, 
expect  a  freezing  back  to  rise  in  temperature  or  an 
empty  stomach  to  cease  its  gnawing  simply  by  the  mere 
utterance  of  the  words,  "Be  warm,"  "Be  filled."  Just  so 
the  constant  reiteration  of  the  mere  profession  "I  have 
faith"  does  not  convey  any  information  at  all  to  a 
sensible  man.  The  man  on  the  street  knows  more  than 
to  be  fooled  by  such  a  flimsy  faith.     Works,  not  words, 


118         The  Story  of  the  'New  Testament 

are  the  channel  through  which  real  faith  conveys  the 
message  of  its  presence. 

Another  community  temptation  is  described  in  chap- 
ter 3,  verses  1-12.  It  is  that  of  too  many  seeking  to  be- 
come teachers  or  leaders.  In  fact,  it  gets  so  bad  some- 
times that  there  are  no  pupils  and  so  many  leaders 
that  there  are  none  to  follow.  Such  a  condition  was 
on  in  James's  time,  and  he  hastens  to  deprecate  it  by 
showing  the 

Temptation  of  the  Teacher 

This  is  briefly  to  use  his  tongue  more  than  he  uses 
his  head  and  his  conscience.  He  is  prone  to  forget  that 
he  occupies  a  position  of  prominence  and  so  must  re- 
ceive a  greater  stress  of  judgment  than  the  man  in  the 
ranks.  The  instrument  of  teaching  is  the  tongue,  and 
this  is  the  most  untamable  of  all  our  members.  We  can 
guide  a  large  horse  with  a  bridle;  we  can  steer  a  big 
ship  in  spite  of  adverse  winds  and  waves  by  a  finger 
thrust  on  the  tiller.'  But  these  figures,  despite  their 
vividness,  fail  to  convey  save  in  an  exceedingly  feeble 
way  the  idea  of  the  disproportion  between  the  size  of 
the  tongue  and  the  amount  of  evil  it  will  accomplish 
unless  it  be  moved  at  the  impulse  of  a  divinely  be- 
stowed wisdom.  James  had  seen  too  many  Jerusalem 
mobs  under  the  influence  of  tongues  set  on  fire  of  hell 
itself  to  fail  to  see  that  nothing  is  so  like  it  as  the  tiny 
torch  by  which  whole  forests  may  be  swept  to  destruc- 
tion. Against  the  insidious  temptation  of  a  bifurcated 
tongue — blessing  God  and  cursing  men — all  nature  cries 
aloud.  Every  fountain  and  every  fig  tree  is  an  eloquent 
and  convincing  protest  to  the  man  that  has  the  divine 
wisdom.  This  leads  up  naturally  to  the  contrasted  con- 
ditions of  those  who  are  prompted  by  that  wisdom  which 
is  earthly,  sensual,  and  devilish  and  those  who  are  pos- 
sessed of  the  higher  and  divine  sort  (3:  13-18). 

Chapter  4,  verses  1-10,  occupy  themselves  with  the 

Temptation  of  the  Divided  Life 
which  consists  of  the  warfare  between  divine  will  and 


Two  Catholic  Brothers  lli> 

human  desire.  This  leads  up  to  the  philosophy  of  the 
failure  of  prayer,  and  in  the  midst  of  this  section  the 
author  hangs  high  his  noble  plea  for  a  religion  of  the 
whole  heart. 

The  Temptation  to  Censoriousness 

is  next  treated  (4:  11,  12),  and  then  follows  a  vivid 
remonstrance  against  too  readily  yielding  to  the  tempta- 
tion precipitated  by  the  call  of  the  city.  Here  James 
faces  a  modern  problem  and  diagnoses  a  disease  much 
prevalent  in  our  day — namely,  that  of  rushing  into  the 
city  and  leaving  God  and  religion  out  of  account.  The 
moral  insanity  of  such  a  procedure  is  equaled  only  by 
the  mental  aberration  that  prompts  it.  O,  says  James 
and  say  we  all,  for  that  divine  wisdom  that  will  keep 
people  in  the  country,  or,  if  they  must  come  to  the  city, 
that  will  prompt  them  to  bring  God  with  them! 

Chapter  5,  verses  1  through  6,  constitutes  one  of  the 
most  flaming  invectives  known  to  the  New  Testament. 
In,  fact,  there  is  nothing  like  it  save  the  scorching  sen- 
tences that  leap  from  the  lips  of  Jesus  himself  as  he 
inveighs  against  the  pride  and  selfishness  of  Pharisaic 
bigotry.  This  is  James's  arraignment  of  tainted  wealth 
wherein  he  elaborates  on  the 

Temptations  of  Riches 
Whether  he  is  condemning  a  real  condition  or  simply 
puts  it  in  this  realistic  fashion  to  make  his  teaching 
more  telling  is  hard  to  decide  absolutely.  But  there 
is  no  doubt  that  in  this  passage  this  righteous  soul 
rises  to  the  greatest  heights  of  denunciatory  eloquence 
as  the  molten  message  of  his  holy  fury  rushes  out  in 
these  all-consuming  words  of  wrath. 

Three  Temptations  or  Trials 
follow.    These  have  to  do,  however,  with  those  who  are 
really  Christian  brethren.     They  are,  first,  the  tempta- 
tion  to  murmur  and  grow  faint-hearted  over  the  delay 
of  the  Lord's  presence.     To  these  James  has  two  great 


120         The  Story  of  the  New  Testament 

antidotes:  We  must  not  yield  to  this  trial;  for  if  we  do, 
both  the  farmers  of  earth  and  the  prophets  of  God  will 
rebuke  us,  especially  Job,  who  was  both  and  who  in 
both  capacities  suffered  far  beyond  all  ordinary  experi- 
ence and  forever  stands  as  an  eloquent  example  of  the 
end  the  Lord  has  in  view  in  allowing  temptation  to 
cross  the  path  of  his  childrern  (5:  7-11).  The  second 
temptation  is  a  natural  sequel  to  the  first.  The  tardi- 
ness of  righteousness,  the  postponement  of  divine  venge- 
ance, the  fact  that  "the  mills  of  the  gods  grind  slowly," 
is  in  itself  the  subtlest  temptation  of  all.  It  assails  the 
holiest  hearts,  and  many  men  that  have  not  yielded  to 
the  allurements  of  wealth  or  the  enticements  of  lust 
have  fallen  victims  to  a  desire  for  vengeance  and  have 
imprecated  God  and  anathematized  men.  Wrath  even 
of  the  righteous  sort  needs,  says  James,  the  curb  of  the 
divine  wisdom  whose  yea  is  yea  and  nothing  less,  whose 
nay  is  nay  and  nothing  more  (5:  12). 

Chapter  5,  from  verse  13  to  the  end,  is  taken  up  with 
showing  that  the  divine  wisdom  is  not  exhausted  in  the 
matter  of  these  more  prominent — and,  one  might  say, 
public — tests  such  as  have  been  treated  in  the  letter 
so  far;  but,  as  the  writer  contends,  she  is  "gentle"  and 
"easy  to  be  entreated"  and  as  such  does  not  disdain  to 
enter  the  lowly  place  of  purely  individual  experience 
and  radiate  there  the  light  and  warmth  of  her  heavenly 
benediction.  She  may  be  had  in  the  hour  of  suffering 
to  keep  us. from  yielding  to  the  pressure  of  bodily  or 
mental  pain;  she  may  be  had  in  the  moment  of  exultant 
joy  to  temper  our  gladness  lest  we  fall  under  the  temp- 
tation of  prosperity;  she  will,  if  we  icin,  enter  the  sick 
chamber  and  with  her  beneficent  presence  dispel  all 
doubt  and  fear  and  thus  transform  this  doorway  of 
death  into  a  portal  of  life  for  this  world  and  for  that 
which  is  to  come  (5:  13-18).  Nay,  more,  that  crowning 
crime  of  the  Christian  community  and  the  Christian 
individual,  the  ever-present  temptation  to 


Two  Catholic  Brothers  121 

Spiritual  Sloth, 

even  this  can  be  resisted  and  cured  by  this  divine  im- 
partation  of  wisdom.  It  will  teach  us,  says  James,  the 
high  art  of  converting  men  from  sin,  of  saving  souls 
from  death,  and  by  its  constant  employment  we  shall 
be  able  to  hide  from  the  gaze  of  men  and  angels  a  multi- 
tude of  sins  that  otherwise  would  have  harrowed  hu- 
man souls  and  grieved  the  heart  of  a  gracious  God  (5: 
19,  20). 

Similarity  of  James  to  the  Gospels 

Three  points  at  least  must  strike  every  thoughtful 
reader  of  this  Epistle.  No  one  can  be  blind  to  the  vivid- 
ness of  the  style,  the  eth^al  earnestness  of  the  contents, 
and  the  marvelous  similarity  in  substance  that  this 
Epistle  presents  to  the  teaching  of  Jesus.  So  far  is  this 
last  statement  true  that  some  critics  maintain  that  we 
have  in  James  a  veritable  collection  of  the  sayings  of 
Jesus.  Be  this  as  it  may,  we  can  at  least  say  that  James, 
like  his  brothers  Jude  and  Jesus,  was  fond  of  nature 
and  wedded  to  reality.  And  in  his  teaching  we  have 
abundant  proof  that  he  too  had  a  full  share  of  that 
family  trait  so  beautiful  and  powerfully  present  in  their 
mother  Mary,  the  setting  forth  of  truth  in  highly  figura- 
tive form  (see  Luke  1:  46-55).  And  so  James,  like  his 
two  brothers,  took  the  whole  world  of  nature  and  of 
man  as  the  source  from  which  to  draw  his  stores  of 
similes.  The  humdrum  commonplaces  of  rural  life, 
such  as  bridling  a  horse,  waiting  for  rain,  sowing  seed, 
gathering  crops,  or  quenching  one's  thirst  at  the  refresh- 
ing spring,  the  broad  expanse  of  the  sea  with  its  surg- 
ing waves  "driven  by  the  winds  and  tossed,"  the  ship's 
rudder  and  the  starry  world,  thg  details  of  domestic  life, 
rust  and  moths  and  even  mirrors — all  these  and  more 
become  under  his  touch  of  genius  tongues  manifold  to 
tell  us  two  things — namely,  that  God  in  his  wisdom  has 
placed  us  in  a  world  where  trial  and  temptation  abound 
on  every  hand;  and,  secondly,  that  it  is  our  wisdom  to 
seek  wisdom  from  him  in  order  that  we  may  be  able  to 


122         The  Story  of  the  New  Testament 

let  patience  have  her  perfect  work  in  this  world,  so 
that,  finally,  we  may  enter  into  the  realization  of  that 
blessed  ideal  held  aloft  by  Him  who  was  himself  perfect 
through  suffering:  "Ye  shall  be  perfect,  even  as  your  Fa- 
ther in  heaven  is  perfect." 


Thought  Questions 

1.  What  is  the  general  difference  in  destination  be- 
tween the  letters  of  Paul  and  the  so-called  Catholic 
Epistles? 

2.  What  do  we  know  about  Jude,  the  writer  of  the  let- 
ter that  bears  his  name? 

3.  What  seems  to  have  been  the  occasion  of  the  writ- 
ing of  the  letter  of  Jude,  and  d#  you  find  any  connection 
between  that  occasion  and  the  fiery  impetuosity  of  the 
style  and  matter? 

4.  What  is  the  great  truth  that  Jude's  letter  enforces, 
and  with  what  varied  figures  of  speech  does  he  make 
his  message  vivid? 

5.  What  is  the  positive  counsel  of  the  letter?  Can  you 
recite  from  memory  the  beautiful  doxology  with  which 
it  closes? 

6.  Do  you  distinguish  James  the  author  of  the  letter 
from  the  two  apostles  of  Jesus  who  bore  that  name,  and 
what  do  you  know  of  him? 

7.  Is  there  anything  in  James's  style  and  chosen  range 
of  illustration  to  suggest  the  teaching  of  Jesus  and  the 
family  at  Nazareth? 

8.  If  there  is  a  great  unifying  motive  throughout  the 
letter  of  James,  what  is  it? 

9.  Name  several  of  the  temptations  against  which 
wisdom  fortifies  the  Christian. 

10.  What  important  message  has  the  letter  of  James 
for  modem  Christians? 


VIII.  PETER  AND  JOHN:    LARGE  LESSON 
FROM  LITTLE  LETTERS 


Passages  for  Daily  Readings 

Sunday. — Peter  and  John  in  Evangelic  History.  Mark 
1:  16-20;  Luke  5:  8-10;  9:  49;  Matthew  16:  13-20;  17:  1-4; 
John  18:  16-18;  20:  1-10;  Acts  1:  15;  2:  14;  3:  1-4;  4:  13; 
10:  9,  etc. 

Monday.— Faith  Put  to  Proof.     1  Peter  1:  3-12. 

Tuesday. — The  Great  Example.     1  Peter  4:  1-19. 

Wednesday. — Growth  in  Holiness.  2  Peter  1:2-11;  3: 
14-18. 

Thursday. — Types  in  the  Early  Ch\irch.  3  John  1-14; 
2  John  1-13. 

Friday. — Fellowship  in  Experience  and  Its  Tests.  1 
John  1:  1-2:  11. 

Saturday. — The  Hope  and  the  Holy  Life.  1  John  3: 
1-24. 


Introduction 
All  through  the  Gospels  and  the  early  parts  of 
Acts  we  see  two  men  constantly  associated.  No  two 
participated  more  intimately  in  the  companionship  of 
our  Lord  during  his  earthly  ministry  than  did  Peter 
and  John.  Among  the  first  to  be  called,  they  are  promi- 
nent all  the  way  through  the  public  life,  taking  part  in 
all  the  phases  of  Jesus's  activities;  and  finally  on  the 
glad  morning  of  the  resurrection  we  find  these  two  to- 
gether, standing  in  mute  but  grateful  wonder  before  the 
open  tomb.  Nor  do  the  final  scenes  of  the  gospel  story 
separate  these  men.  Though  so  different  in  their  per- 
sonal characteristics,  their  spiritual  attitudes,  and  their 
appreciation  of  their  Master,  we  find  that  upon  their 
shoulders  falls  the  burden  of  inaugurating  the  Christian 
community  in  Jerusalem.  Upon  these  two  falls  the 
brunt  of  the  hostile  attack  of  the  Sanhedrin.  Their 
minds  have  to  guide  the  course  of  the  new  society;  their 
voices  become  the  mouthpiece  of  the  new  dispensation; 
their  backs  are  made  to  quiver  under  the  fear  of  threat- 
en) 


124         The  Story  of  the  Netv  Testament 

ened  beatings;  and  their  hearts  are  the  first  to  fill  to 
overflowing  with  the  glad  joy  that  those  who  are  perse- 
cuted for  righteousness'  sake  alone  are  privileged  to 
know.  These  two,  so  strongly  united  in  the  history  of 
the  early  Church,  could  not  fail  to  find  a  place  in  the 
literature;  and  so  we  find  among  the  Catholic  Epistles 
five  of  which  are  traditionally  attributed  to  these  true 
yokefellows. 

Of  course  many  critical  objections  are  at  once  sprung, 
These  cannot  detain  us  at  this  time,  but  it  would  be  dis 
honest  not  to  acknowledge  their  presence  and  their  force 
Take  the  Johannine  letters,  for  example.  The  identifica 
tion  of  the  author  is  one  of  the  puzzles  still  to  be  un 
tangled.  No  name  of  author  appears  in  any  of  the 
three.  In  two  of  them  we  have  the  very  definite  de- 
scription, "the  elder";  but  even  this  is  complicated  by 
the  early  tradition  of  two  Johns — one  the  apostle,  the 
other  the  presbyter  or  elder.  And,  finally,  as  to  charac- 
ter; while  we  may  grant  that  Third  John  is  a  true  let- 
ter addressed  to  a  specific  person  and  dealing  with  a 
specific  point,  the  destination  and  character  of  Second 
John  is  by  no  means  so  clear;  and  when  we  turn  to 
the  so-called  First  Epistle,  in  the  absence  of  all  destina- 
tion and  personal  reference  (save  the  vague  notices  in 
2:  12-14  and  2:  18),  we  can  hardly  discover  any  epis- 
tolary element  at  all  and  hence  have  to  class  it  as  a 
homily  or  pastoral  address. 

And  even  with  regard  to  the  Petrine  writings,  though 
the  influence  of  the  practical  Peter  is  much  more  in  evi- 
dence in  the  New  Testament  than  that  of  the  mystic 
John,  still  we  are  far  from  unanimity  even  in  his  case. 
Some  scholars  deny  Peter's  hand  in  both  the  letters  as- 
cribed to  him;  very  many  deny  only  the  second  letter; 
very  few  allow  both  to  be  genuine.  It  may  be  freely 
confessed  that,  so  far  as  external  evidence  goes.  Second 
Peter  deserves  the  title  of  the  black  sheep  of  the  New 
Testament  canon.  Notices  of  its  existence  are  far  less 
early  and  less  frequent  than  in  any  other  case,  and  when 
we  enter  the  realm  of  internal  evidence  several  very  ob- 


Peter  and  John  125 

stinate  problems  still  vex  the  critic's  skill.  The  un- 
doubted connection  of  the  second  chapter  with  Jude 
raises  a  problem  unparalleled  in  the  New  Testament; 
and  the  reference  to  Paul's  letters  as  "scripture"  (this 
seems  to  be  the  natural  inference  from  3:  15,  16)  renders 
it  highly  improbable  that  all  critics,  even  conservatives, 
will  at  an  early  date  assent  to  the  statement  of  3:  1. 

Even  those  who  fight  hardest  to  maintain  the  truth- 
fulness of  the  traditional  attitude  find  themselves  hard 
beset.  Zahn  and  Spitta,  for  example,  while  maintaining 
the  authenticity  of  Second  Peter,  have  to  allow  that 
Silvanus  wrote  the  first  letter,  because  the  style  and 
composition  are  so  unlike;  and,  on  the  other  hand,  Ram- 
say, in  order  to  save  First  Peter  to  Peter  himself,  feels 
it  necessary  (because  of  the  type  of  persecution  It  refers 
to)  to  prblong  the  life  of  the  apostle  two  decades  or 
more,  thus  flying  in  the  face  of  a  well-nigh  universal 
tradition  which  declares  that  Peter  suffered  martyrdom 
along  with  Paul  during  the  persecution  of  Nero.  In  the 
face  of  all.  this  undoubted  diversity  of  opinion  on  the 
part  of  the  very  best  and  most  reverent  of  scholars,  we 
cannot  afford  to  be  dogmatic  in  the  assertion  of  our 
opinions  on  the  critical  problems  sprung  by  these  writ- 
ings. 

A  more  profitable  undertaking  would  be  to  pass  by 
the  purely  theological  and  literary  approach  to  these 
writings  and  seek  to  discover  their  religious  purpose 
and  value.  For  this  is  the  really  permanent  phase  of 
Bible  interpretation.  Theologies  are  outgrown  and  have 
to  be  from  time  to  time  constructed  anew,  and  the  em- 
phasis and  method  of  literary  criticism  are  constantly 
changing;  but  there  is  a  wonderful  persistence  inhering 
in  the  fundamental  problems  of  the  spiritual  life,  and 
all  through  the  history  of  the  Church  the  Bible  in  its 
various  elements  has  proved  itself  wonderfully  success- 
ful in  demonstrating  its  own  nature  by  answering  so 
frequently  and  so  fully  one  of  its  own  demands:  "Man 
shall  not  live  by  bread  alone,  but  by  every  word  that 


126  The  ^tonj  of  the  New  Testament 

proceedeth  from  the  mouth  of  God."    From  this  stand- 
point let  us  approach  these  writings. 

The  Message  of  First  Peter 

Positively  stated,  Simon  Peter  is  the  apostle  of  hope. 
In  fact,  we  should  never  have  heard  of  him  injChrlstian 
annals  had  this  not  been  so.  The  first  meeting  Jesus 
had  with  him  was  signalized  by  these  words:  "Thou  art 
Simon.  .  .  .  Thou  shalt  be  called  Peter."  One  of  the 
last  times  he  saw  the  Lord  hope  was  still  his  only  hope: 
"I  have  prayed  for  thee.  .  .  .  When  once  thou  hast 
turned  again,  establish  thy  brethren."  If  there  was 
anything  that  Peter  had  to  be  grateful  for,  it  was  for 
the  future  tense;  not  what  he  is  or  teas,  but  what  he 
hopes  to  l)ecome  is  ofttimes  i;  his  experience  the  only 
saving  clause.  Consequently,  when  he  calls  his  amanu- 
ensis Silas  (5:  12),  looks  out  from  the  midst  of  the  per- 
secutions he  himself  is  doubtless  soon  to  suffer  in  Rome 
(5:  13),  sends  the  salutation  of  the  Church  there  to  the 
Christians  scattered  throughout  the  far-distant  provinces 
of  Pontus,  Galatia,  Cappadocia,  Asia,  and  Bithynia,  his 
one  fundamental  purpose  ^s  to  expatiate  for  their  benefit 
and  Ills  own  as  well  upon 

The  Function  of  Suffering  in  Developing  Saints 

And  herein  do  we  read  the  story  of  a  mighty  conver- 
sion on  Peter's  part.  One  of  the  most  difficult  things  for 
him  to  do,  even  under  the  tuition  of  the  great  Teacher 
himself,  was  to  associate,  even  in  the  remotest  degree, 
religion  and  hardship.  He  was  in  the  early  years  of  his 
life  absolutely  dominated  by  the  popular  Galilean  theol- 
ogy, which  interpreted  the  Messianic  hope  in  terms  of 
physical  power,  material  splendor,  and  the  solid  satis- 
factions of  "the  full  dinner  paii."  The  most  difficult 
task  Jesus  had  to  accomplish  was  to  show  to  Simon  the 
relation  between  suffering  and  sainthood.  Even  after 
the  great  confession  in  Peter's  words,  "Thou  art  the 
Messias,"  there  was  a  long  period  before  this  disciple 
could  be  weaned  from  his  early  ideas  and  be  taught  that 


Peter  and  John  127 

the  real  function  of  the  Messias  was  not  to  be  minis- 
tered unto,  but  to  minister;  not  to  wield  a  scepter,  but 
to  sacrifice  his  life.  The  First  Epistle  is  the  standing 
monument  to  Peter's  docility  as  a  pupil  of  Jesus.  Here 
he  is  seen  to  have  thoroughly  mastered  this  lesson.  So 
much  so  that  he  now  sees  hardly  any  other  function  for 
a  Christian  to  observe  save  the  function  of  suffering. 
He  has  learned,  and  learned  completely,  that  saints  and 
sons  of  God  are  developed  and  sustained  by  becoming 
partakers  of  the  divine  nature  through  suffering. 

These  Christians  of  the  Asia  Minor  provinces  are 
passing  through  the  fiery  furnace.  Who  more  quick  to 
see  their  plight  or  more  able  to  hearten  their  souls  than 
Simon  Peter,  the  man  whom  Jesus  himself  had  taught 
that  the  path  of  sovereignty  lay  through  the  dark  de- 
files of  disappointed  hope  and  past  the  horrid  brow  of 
Calvary? 

Hence,  after  a  grateful  benediction,  he  immediately 
plunges  into  the  midst  of  the  manifold  trials  by  which 
they  are  beset  and  begins  to  extract  sweetness  out  of 
their  bitterness.  Their  basal  ground  for  joy  is  in  the 
fact  that  they,  Gentiles  as  they  are,  are  experiencing  a 
salvation  so  great  that  prophets  and  angels  have  strained 
their  eyes  to  look  into  it  (1:  9-12).  And  in  view  of  the 
fact  that  the  expectations  of  these  have  not  been  put  to 
shame,  Peter  advances  his  first  great  exhortation  that 
they  are  to  resist  the  suffering  entailed  by  hope  being 
often  deferred  and  are  to  hold  ever  in  view  the  tran- 
scendent ideal  held  aloft  by  Jesus  himself  when,  away 
back  on  the  Horns  of  Hattin,  in  the  Sermon  on  the 
Mount,  he  declared:  "Ye  shall  be  perfect,  even  as  your 
Father  in  heaven  is  perfect."  This  holiness  is  to  come 
through  obedience  to  the  truth,  and  the  truth  is  medi- 
ated through  the  word  of  the  living  and  abiding  God. 
As  lieathen  they  had  known  only  dead  and  evanescent 
deities;  hence  to  hear  of  the  God  and  Father  of  a  living 
Lord  was  indeed  veritable  "good  tidings"  (1:  13-25). 

The  second  suffering  in  the  stage  of  an  ever-develop- 
ing sainthood  is  that  suffering  entailed  by  the  sacrifice 


128  The  Story  of  the  Neiv  Testament 

of  all  selfish  and  wicked  desires  and  propensities  and 
the  reception  of  the  babe's  relation  (2:  1-10).  Here 
Peter  applies  two  great  principles  laid  down  by  Christ: 

(1)  We  must  turn  and  become  as  little  children;  and 

(2)  we  must  grow  up  until  we  become  true  sons  and 
daughters,  a  royal,  holy  priesthood,  and  be  builded  to- 
gether into  a  spiritual  temple  acceptable  to  God  through 
Christ.  This  is  Peter's  version  of  the  famous  "Rock" 
passage,  and  surely  there  is  not  a  shred  here  of  the  later 
papal  perversion  of  that  historic  scripture  (Matt.  16: 
18). 

A  third  source  of  suffering  is  that  arising  from  the 
effort  to  maintain  purity  of  life  in  the  midst  of  an  evil 
environment,  so  that  misrepresentation  on  the  part  of 
hostile  heathen  shall  be  stopped  and  defamation  turned  to 
praise  (2:  11,  12,;  see  also  the  echo  here  of  Matt.  5:  16). 

Another  phase  of  suffering  is  that  due  to  various  sub- 
jections under  which  the  Christian  life  must  normally  bs 
lived.  There  is,  first  of  all,  in  this  section  subjection  to 
civil  authority.  In  Peter's  day  this  was  a  heathen 
authority  and  extremely  harsh  at  times.  Christianity 
brought  freedom,  but  the  Christian  is  counseled  not  to 
array  himself  against  the  civil  power.  Just  as  Jesus  saw 
fit  to  live  without  rebellion  under  Herod  and  Pontius 
Pilate,  so  these  his  followers  are  to  live  in  peace  and  pur- 
ity even  under  the  wicked  regime  of  a  Nero  (2:  13-17). 

The  second  phase  of  this  subjection  is  that  entailed 
by  the  duties  of  the  family  relation.  Next  to  the  civil 
power  comes  the  authority  in  the  home,  for  the  home  is 
the  seed  plot  of  the  State.  Very  characteristically.  Peter 
begins  with  the  lowest  element  represented  there,  the 
household  servants.  To  these  he  offers  the  inspiring  ex- 
ample of  Christ  himself  as  their  great  Exemplar;  and  in 
a  particularly  vivid  section  (2:  22,  23)  he  gives  us  and 
them  a  glimpse  into  the  trial  court  where  Jesus  so  di- 
vinely suffered  for  righteousness'  sake  and  out  of  that 
bitter  experience  brought  salvation  for  the  least  and  low- 
est of  the  race  (2:  18-25). 


Peter  and  John  129 

Next  to  the  servants  the  wives  were  the  most  despised 
section  of  the  society  of  that  time.  So  Peter  turns  to 
them  and  shows  to  them  the  implications  and  obliga- 
tions of  their  Christian  profession.  The  two  perennial 
feminine  frailties,  loquacity  and  vanity,  are  gently  re- 
buked and  the  true  adornment  of  woman's  character 
strongly  depicted.  What  an  inspiration  to  these  heathen 
of  long-lost  Cappadocia,  who  had  drudged  through  millen- 
niums of  misery  both  mental  and  moral,  now  under  the 
teaching  of  the  gospel  to  feel  the  uplifting  influence  of 
that  princess  in  Israel,  Sarah,  the  noble  wife  of  God's 
first  human  friend,  the  faithful  Abraham  (3:  1-6)!  Hus- 
bands too  are  exhorted  to  do  their  part  in  the  spirit  of 
a  Christian's  subjection  to  the  obligations  of  a  divinely 
ordered  life,  and  this  section  concludes  with  an  eloquent 
appeal  for  all  who  name  the  name  of  Christ  to  exhibit 
love  and  pity  and  humility  even  in  the  face  of  overbear- 
ing pride  and  insolence  (3:  7-12). 

From  chapter  three,  verse  thirteen,  through  chapter 
four,  verse  six,  Peter  expatiates  upon 

The  Greatest  Ideal  He  Knows  of  Buffering  Innocence 

This  is  none  other  than  the  Christ  whom  he  at  one 
time  rebuked  for  even  hinting  that  his  pathway  lay 
through  pain.  (See  Matt.  16:  22.)  But  Jesus  has  de- 
molished that  old-time  Satanic  spirit  that  Simon  showed 
on  that  occasion.  To  him  now  there  are  no  limits  to  the 
suffering  of  the  Saviour.  He  suffered  here  in  the  days 
of  his  flesh.  Yes,  but  his  sufferings  did  not  cease  when 
he  expired  upon  the  cross.  From  there  he  went  to  the 
abode  of  the  spirits,  and  his  self-sacrificing  love  did  not 
permit  him  to  tarry  long  amid  the  felicitations  of  the 
just;  past  these  seers  and  saints  of  the  olden  time  who 
fain  would  have  detained  him  to  lavish  upon  him  their 
joyful  and  grateful  praise;  past  these,  Abraham,  Isaac, 
Jacob,  David,  Isaiah;  past  these,  the  spirits  of  the  just 
made  perfect,  he  went,  his  momentum  of  mercy  gather- 
ing since  all  time  began — yea,  since  God  himself  dis- 
9 


130         The  Story  of  the  New  Testament 

covered  the  divineness  of  self-renunciation — carrying 
him  on  to  those  antediluvians  who  had  resisted  the  ap- 
peals of  the  righteous  Noah  for  one  hundred  and  twenty 
years — to  these  Christ  went  and  preached,  and  even  they 
were  forced  to  learn  the  lesson  of  sainthood  achieved 
through  suffering.  The  practical  lesson  from  all  this  is 
very  plain,  ^f  Christ  is  a  sufferer,  then  it  follows,  "as 
the  night  the  day,"  that  the  Christian  must  he  likewise 
a  sufferer.  This  thought  is  still  further  expanded  in  the 
latter  part  of  the  fourth  chapter,  where  Peter  seems  to 
remember  the  beatitude  pronounced  by  Jesus  upon 
those  who  suffer  reviling  for  his  sake  (4:  14).  He  is 
careful  to  tell  them  that  this  suffering  must  be  for  the 
name — that  name  "Christian" — which  ever  since  the 
time  it  was  hurled  at  the  brotherhood  at  Antioch  has 
been  a  byword  and  a  reproach.  But,  says  Peter,  while 
this  may  be  the  name  by  which  men  seek  to  shame  us. 
It  is  in  truth  the  only  name  by  which  we  can  glorify 
Ood  (4:  15,  16).  In  chapter  five  we  have  in  the  first 
paragraph  (verses  1-5)  the  appeal  to  the  officiary  of  the 
Church  to  maintain  in  a  spirit  of  Christian  humility 
their  proper  relations.  The  second  paragraph  (verses 
6-10)  is  more  general  in  its  scope,  exhorting  all  to  resist 
steadfastly  the  common  adversary,  upbuoyed  by  the  con- 
sciousness that  they  are  partakers  of  the  sufferings  of 
the  whole  world  brotherhood  of  Christians. 

And  so  this  letter  is  Peter's  second  confession.  His 
first  was  great  and  called  down  a  benediction  from  the 
the  lips  of  Jesus.  That  was  his  declaration  tlrat  Jesus 
is  the  Messias.  In  the  days  of  his  flesh  Jesus  was  not 
able  to  lead  him  to  the  second  stage;  for  when  he  tried 
to  tell  his  self-opinionated  disciple  what  the  function  of 
the  Messias  was,  he  was  rebuffed.  But  as  the  years 
passed  time  and  trial  and  the  grace  of  God  wrought  the 
miracle,  and  we  have  its  proof  in  this  epistle. 

The  Message  of  Second  Peteb 

The  second  letter  attributed  to  Peter  emphasizes  the 
fiame  great  religious  truth  as  the  first  letter,  but  stated 


Peter  and  John  131 

in  a  somewhat  more  positive  form.     For  in  this  epistle 
the  outlook  is  not  so  much  upon  suffering  as  it  is  upon 

Growth  in  Godliness 

It  seems  to  have  as  one  of  its  inspirations  the  memory 
of  that  old-time  request  of  the  disciples,  "Lord,  increase 
our  faith,"  and  is  by  implication  a  proof  that  this  re- 
quest cannot  be  answered  mechanically  or  by  proxy. 
Hence  in  the  forefront  of  the  epistle  we  have  the  famous 
appeal  for  the  constant  and  consecutive  construction  of 
the  Christian  character.  It  is  based  upon  the  revelation 
in  Christ  of  all  things  that  pertain  unto  life  and  godli- 
ness; its  goal  is  that  we  become  partakers  of  the  divine 
nature;  its  method  is  human  cooperation  and  the  con- 
tinual cultivation  of  the  graces  of  the  Christian  revela- 
tion. We  are  to  grow  to  and  grow  through  the  various 
stages  of  moral  development  till  we  come  to  be  expo- 
nents of  that  love  which  is  the  very  essence  of  God  him- 
self (1:  Ml). 

Now,  the  soul  feeds  on  personal  relationships,  and 
memory  is  one  of  the  mightiest  means  to  revive  both  in 
ourselves  and  in  others  the  inspiration  of  such  fellow- 
ships. Hence  in  the  second  part  of  this  chapter  the 
writer  calls  vividly  to  mind  the  transcendent  revelation 
borne  out  of  heaven  when  he  and  his  companions  were 
with  Christ  in  the  holy  mount  (1:  18).  This  is  doubt- 
less a  reference  to  Peter's  experience  upon  the  Mount  of 
Transfiguration,  where  the  glory  of  the  new  dispensa- 
tion— that  of  sonship  through  suffering  and  service — for- 
ever flung  into  the  background  the  superseded  splendor 
of  both  law  and  prophecy  combined. 

The  second  chapter  urges  this  growth  in  godliness 
even  in  the  face  of  moral  lapse  and  religious  retrogres- 
sion. It  is  at  such  a  time  as  this,  if  ever,  that  God's 
true  children  must  hear  his  voice  and  heed  his  blest  be- 
hests. 

Chapter  three  is  directed  for  the  most  part  to  tlie 
special  point  of  meeting  those  who  mocked  at  the  failure 
of  the  Lord  to  come  in  accordance  with  the  expectation 


132         The  Story  of  the  New  Testament 

of  the  early  Christians.  In  spite  of  the  shock  to  their 
faith  and  in  spite  of  the  sneers  of  their  foes,  they  must 
grow  in  godliness  even  under  such  an  adverse  condition. 
They  are  to  remember  that  Jesus  through  his  apostles 
has  already  told  them  that  mockers  should  arise.  They 
are  not  to  forget  that  time  forges  no  fetters  for  God — 
"one  day  is  as  a  thousand  years" — and  they  must  recall 
that  this  very  postponement  of  which  their  calumniators 
complain  is  in  itself  an  emphatic  illustration  of  God's 
redeeming  mercy  "and  is  proof  that  he  does  not  wish 
any  to  perish  (3:  1-9). 

But  in  contrast  to  all  this  unbelief  and  temptation  to 
doubt,  the  writer  avows  his  firm  conviction  that 

''The  Lord  Will  Come" 

Great  suddenness  and  cataclysmic  social  upheavals 
will  be  the  concomitants  of  his  coming — "the  old  order 
changeth,  giving  place  to  new";  a  new  heavjen  and  a 
new  earth  wherein  dwelleth  righteousness  will  ensue. 
How  shall  we  be  ready  for  this  new  habitat?  "Grow  in 
godlikeness!"  responds  our  writer.  "Give  diligence  that 
ye  may  be  found  in  peace,  without  spot  and  blameless 
in  his  sight."  The  way  to  do  this,  he  avers,  is  to  "grow 
in  the  grace  and  knowledge  of  our  Lord  and  Saviour 
Jesus  Christ"  (3:  18).  And  so  this  letter,  written  in  the 
name  of  that  New  Testament  character  which  grew 
probably  more  than  any  other,  emphasizes  the  great 
principle- that  in  a  growing  world  with  horizons  ever  en- 
larging and  human  systems  ever  being  left  behind,  the 
only  safe  preparation  for  any  and  all  readjustments  to 
social,  political,  and  religious  conditions  is  to  be  found 
in  maintaining  personal  union  and  communion  with 
Christ;  for  he  as  the  constant  contemporary  of  all  the 
centuries,  "the  same  yesterday,  to-day,  and  forever,"  has 
ever  been  leading  his  disciples  out  of  the  narrow  limita- 
tions  of  their  earthly  horizon  into  the  ever-broadening 
and  ever-brightening  glory  of  their  heavenly  inherit- 
ance. 


Peter  and  John  '  133 

THE  JOHANNINE  LETTERS 

Tradition  is  unanimous  in  attributing  three  of  the 
seven  Catholic  Epistles  to  the  apostle  John;  though  the 
external  testimony  for  the  third  epistle,  by  reason  of  its 
more  private  character,  is  not  so  strong  as  that  for  the 
other  two.    It  is  best,  however,  to  begin  with  the 

Third  Epistle 
because  its  message  is  so  clear  and  its  character  as  a 
real  letter  is  so  apparent.  The  moment  we  read  it  we 
feel  that  we  are  in  the  presence  of  real  human  beings — 
quite  human,  in  fact,  though  they  are  members  of  the 
Church!  There  is,  first  of  all,  the  writer  who  refers  to 
himself  simply  as  .  "the  elder."  This  of  itself  is  suffi- 
cient to  show  that  he  is  a  man  well  known  and  of  ac- 
knowledged authority,  though,  as  the  ninth  verse  indi- 
cates, he  is  suffering  a  rebuff  in  that  one  man  at  least 
is  offering  opposition.  Then  there  is  Gaius  or  Caius, 
the  one  to  whom  the  note  is  addressed.  From  the  de- 
scription of  his  splendid  character  (verses  2-4)  and  of 
his  noble  "work"  as  a  dispenser  of  hospitality  we  are 
led  to  infer  that  hr  is  a  well-to-do  layman  of  true  Chris- 
tian spirit.  Whether  he  is  to  be  identified  with  the 
Gaius  who  was  Paul's  host  in  Corinth  (Rom.  16:  23),  or 
Gaius  of  Macedonia  (Acts  19:  29),  or  Gaius  of  Derbe 
J  Acts  20:  4)  will  doubtless  never  be  decided,  as  the 
name  is  a  fairly  common  one.  But  the  fact  remains  that 
the  man  whom  this  letter  calls  by  that  name  will  for- 
ever live  in  the  annals  of  Christian  biography  as  one  of 
the  choice  products  of  Christ's  constructive  power.  A 
third  character  meets  us  in  the  person  of  Demetrius, 
who  in  all  probability  is  the  bearer  of  the  letter  and 
who,  though  hitherto  unknown  to  Gaius,  is  well  known 
to  the  writer  and  is  vouched  for  by  the  threefold  witness 
of  "all  men,"  "of  the  truth  itself,"  and  of  the  writer.  He 
is  held  up  as  an  example  for  Gaius  to  follow  rather  than 
the  example  set  by  the  fourth  character,  Diotrephes, 
who  is  the  villain  of  this  brief  drama.  His  name  is  as 
uncommon  as  those  of  Demetrius  and  Gaius  are  com- 


134         The  Story  of  the  New  Testament 

inon.  It  means  Zeus-nurtured;  and  this,  taken  in 
connection  with  the  fact  that  he  holds  an  official  posi- 
tion in  the  Church  which  confers  upon  him  a  species  of 
artificial  power,  seems  to  point  to  the  reason  why  he  is 
the  storjn  center  of  these  few  lines. 

In  a  few  short  but  vivid  strokes  the  writer,  whose 
authority  has  been  trampled  upon,  sketches  the  main 
features  of  this  sower  of  schism.  He  loves  to  have  pre- 
eminence; he  has  rebelled  against  the  will  of  the  writer; 
he  indulges  in  wicked  pratings;  and,  to  cap  the  climax, 
is  not  only  not  receiving  in  the  spirit  of  Christian  hospi- 
tality the  traveling  missionaries,  but  is  even  forbidding 
and  excommunicating  those  who  do!  Such  rebellion  i? 
worthy  of  strong  censure.  And  the  writer  does  not  hesi- 
tate to  declare  that  when  he  comes  he  will  bring  its 
author  to  just  punishment.  These  details  as  to  the  de- 
meanor of  Diotrephes  have  led  some  to  infer  that  in  all 
probability  he  was  among  the  first  experiments  in  epis- 
copacy and  that  his  sudden  elevation  puffed  him  up. 
He  grew  in  poiver  more  rapidly  than  he  grew  in  pieti/ 
and  hence  became  a  marplot  instead  of  a  master  builder. 
But,  in  addition  to  all  these  characters,  we  must  men- 
tion some  others  not  named,  indeed,  but  none  the  less 
important,  as  they  really  constitute  the  cause  of  this 
contribution  to  our  New  Testament  canon.  These  are 
the  traveling  missionaries,  and  their  character  and 
claims  are  set  forth  in  verses  five  through  eight.  Though 
strangers  to  many  a  Church,  they  are  brethren  who  have 
gone  forth  for  the  sake  of  the  Name  and  have  renounced 
all  hope  of  gain.  They  are  preachers  of  the  gospel,  and 
as  they  go  from  place  to  place  they  turn  from  the 
wealthy  homes  that  friendly  Gentiles  gladly  offer  at 
times  to  the  members  of  the  Christian  Church  for  hos- 
pitality. A  beautiful  glance  is  thus  given  us  of  the 
way  the  early  Church  sought  to  propagate  the  gospel. 
This  was  the  apostolic  method  of  sending  forth  mission- 
aries and  sustaining  them.  And  as  they  in  faith  and 
zeal  took  up  their  difficult  task  the  Churches  from 
time  to  time  gave  them  protection  while  in  their  midst 


Peter  and  John  135 

and  when  they  left  for  other  scenes  of  labor  set  them 
forward  on  their  journey  in  a  manner  worthy  of  them 
as  messengers  of  God,  believing  that  thus  they  were  be- 
coming fellow  workers  for  the  truth  (verses  5-8). 

It  is  this  section  that  explains  the  Third  Epistle  and 
at  the  same  time,  according  to  many  scholars,  throws  a 
flood  of  light  upon 

Second  John 

as  well.  Evidently  "the  elder"  was  the  authority  that 
sent  forth  these  missionaries.  Evidently,  also,  this  is  the 
first  time  his  authority  has  been  questioned.  Jle  hastens 
to  gain  in  a  certain  Church  a  prominent  Christian  broth- 
er, Gains,  to  his  side  by  means  of  this  urgent  appeal. 
Gains  and  Diotrephes  belong  to  the  same  city,  possibly 
to  the  same  Christian  community;  and  if  we  follow  such 
scholars  as  Zahn  and  Schmiedel,  this  Church  is  the  one 
addressed  in  Second  John.  The  connecting  link  is  verse 
nine  of  the  third  letter.  When  we  read  this  sentence,  "I 
wrote  something  unto  the  Church,"  our  first  question  is, 
What  Church,  and  ichen?  If  we  turn  to  Second  John 
and  rid  our  minds  of  all  prepossession  that  this  letter 
was  directed  to  an  individual  Christian  lady,  it  will  not 
take  us  long  to  see  that  there  is  strong  presumption  that 
this  is  the  letter  and  this  is  the  Church  we  are  looking 
for.  The  subject  of  this  appeal  is  the  same— namely, 
hospitality  to  traveling  missionaries— though  the  em- 
phasis  here  is  upon  warning  them  against  being  de- 
ceived  by  false  brethren.  For,  as  the  Didache  a  decade 
or  so  later  vividly  puts  it,  many  deceivers  were  going 
hither  and  thither  feasting  upon  the  benevolence  of  the 
Christian  congregations;  but  they  were  Christ  traffick- 
ers, not  Christ  teachers!  These  special  pleaders  were 
doubtless  going  forth  under  the  name  of  "progressives." 
The  writer  believes  in  progress,  but  he  issues  a  strong 
protest  against  the  progressives  who  do  not  abide  in  the 
teaching  of  Christ.  The  way  to  go  forward  is  to  go  back 
to  Christ.  Progress  though  abiding  is  the  author's  recipe 
for  all  religious  advance  both  in  thought  and  in  action. 


136         The  Story  of  the  Nciv  Testament 

As  to  the  destination,  though  some  scholars  maintain 
that  a  Christian  lady  is  addressed,  many  considerations, 
stand  out  strongly  attesting  some  particular  Church.  If 
this  latter  view  be  accepted,  it  must  have  been  a  promi- 
nent Church  of  Asia  Minor,  and  of  the  possibilities  Per- 
gamum  seems  to  be  the  most  likely.  At  any  rate,  from 
the  description  of  this  Church  in  Revelation  (2:  12-15), 
it  is  easy  to  see  that  its  one  great  defect  was  that  of 
too  much  toleration;  and  this  is  the  specific  point  the 
Second  Epistle  of  John  warns  against.  Again,  from 
Ramsay's  researches  we  are  led  to  believe  that  Perga- 
mum,  by  ]*eason  of  its  beautiful  location  and  commercial 
prestige,  would  be  tempted  to  resent  any  interference 
from  Ephesus,  whence  we  must  suppose  these  letters 
emanate.  Thus,  also,  there  is  a  peculiar  emphasis  and 
grace  in  the  epithet  "lady"  as  applied  to  the  Christian 
brotherhood  in  this  famous  center.  So  that,  taking  all 
things  together,  we  may  infer  that  one  day  "the  elder" 
met  in  Ephesus  some  of  the  members  of  the  Pergamum 
Church  who  were  walking  in  the  truth.  For  this  he 
records  his  devout  gratitude.  But  they  also  told  him 
of  laxity  on  the  part  of  some  there  in  giving  Godspeed 
to  purveyors  of  "modern"  views.  This  roused  the  fear 
of  the  aged  pastor,  and  in  loving  haste  he  penned  these 
few  lines  of  rebuke  and  warning.  He  declared  that 
paper  and  ink  were  poor  substitutes  for  a  heart-to- 
heart  talk  and  in  true  Christlike  spirit  closed  with  a 
salutation  from  the  Church  at  Ephesus,  heirs  together 
with  them  of  the  grace  and  mercy  and  peace  of  God. 

•    The  Fiest  Epistle  of  John 

We  have  time  and  space  for  only  a  brief  reference  to 
this  writing.  We  can  hardly  call  it  a  letter,  as  it  has 
neither  salutation  nor  conclusion.  It  is  best  considered 
as  a  pastoral  address  designed,  doubtless,  not  for  a  single 
individual  like  Third  John,  not  for  a  single  congregation 
like  Second  John,  but  rather  for  a  great  group  of  con- 
tiguous Churches  and  through  them  ultimately  for  the 
Church  universal.    Hence  it  has  a  rightful  place  among 


Peter  and  John  137 

the  "Catholics,"  and  without  doubt  it  is  to  the  weight  of 
its  presence  among  these  that  the  two  shorter  epistlps 
are  indebted  for  their  inclusion. 

,  It  is  impossible  for  scholars  to  agree  upon  any  analy- 
sis of  this  homily.  Many  have  been  constructed  by  great 
and  learned  men,  but  they  do  not  commend  themselves. 
In  fact,  the  writer  himself  is  just  about  as  satisfactory 
on  this  point  as  any  of  his  interpreters.  His  introduc- 
tion is  brief,  but  big  with  meaning.  His  theme  is  life 
eternal,  his  equipment  for  its  elucidation  is  experience, 
and  his  motive  in  writing  is  that  others  may  enter  into 
the  fellowship  which  he  enjoys.  In  the  course  of  his  ap- 
peal he  combats  certain  errors  propagated  by  false  teach- 
ers, among  whom  we  may  detect  indications  of  Judaiz- 
ers,  Gnostics,  Docetists,  and  possibly  the  teachings  of 
Cerinthus.  But  the  writer's  object  is  by  no  means  pri- 
marily polemical.  He  is,  first  of  all,  engaged  in  seeking 
to  edify  the  Christian  readers  and  to  fortify  them 
against  the  insidious  inroads  that  institutional  or  con- 
ventional religion  is  perennially  susceptible  to.  For  we 
must  not  forget  that  this  appeal  comes,  at  the  earliest, 
from  the  last  part  of  the  first  century.  Seventy  years 
and  more,  it  may  be,  have  sped  since  the  Christian 
Church  began.  The  original  impulse  is  far  spent;  the 
freedom  and  energy  of  the  Spirit  have  given  place  to 
the  lethargy  of  the  letter;  the  Church  has  become  an 
institution  and  is  no  longer  an  inspiration;  many  of  its 
members  are  once-born,  not  twice-born;  fellowship  in  the 
life  eternal  has  to  a  large  extent  become  a  myth  and  con- 
sort with  the  world  a  matter  of  course;  the  criteria  of 
Christianity  are  in  confusion,  and  the  standards  of  a  sec- 
ularism both  selfish  and  sinful  have  usurped  their  throne. 
What  note  is  needed  for  such  a  crisis  as  this?  If  we 
listen  to  this  author  and  correctly  interpret  his  message, 
we  see  in  it 

The  Criteria  of  Christian  Fellowship 

Does  any  one  of  us  wish  to  know  whether  we  are  in 
the   fellowship   of   the   life    eternal?     This   writer   has 


1'6S         The  IStory  of  the  New  Testament 

stated  clearly  the  tests  which  we  are  to  apply  and  in  so 
doing  find  an  answer  to  our  question.  Nine  times  during 
the  course  of  his  appeal  he  uses  the  expression,  "Hereby 
we  know,"  or  one  very  similar.  A  rapid  reading  of  these 
passages  cannot  fail  to  he  of  value.  Having  referred  to 
the  fact  of  fellowship  as  fundamental  in  the  gospel  of 
Christ,  and  having  proved  that  the  failure  to  attain  and 
maintain  this  fellowship  is  due  to  the  denial  or  the  non- 
confession  of  our  sinfulness  (1:  1-2:  2),  the  writer  then 
proceeds  to  give 

v  The  Tests  of  Fellowship         \ 

The  first  is  stated  in  verse  three  of  chapter  two  and 
is  obedience.  No  obedience  means  no  fellowship,  but 
rather  falsity.  The  second  test  is  soon  stated  in  2:5. 
It  consists  in  imitation.  If  test  number  one  refers  to 
acts,  this  refers  to  character.  This  is  expanded,  there- 
fore, at  some  length.  We  must  imitate  Christ.  To  have 
fellowship  with  him  means  to  be  followers  of  him.  We 
must  follow  him  in  love  (2:  7-li),  in  purity,  in  knowl- 
edge, in  victory  over  evil,  in  filial  consciousness  of  God, 
and  in  his  complete  triumph  over  every  temptation  the 
world  has  to  offer  (2:  12-17).  This  constitutes  us  sons 
of  God,  this  imitation  of  Christ;  so  in  chapter  two,  verse 
nineteen,  the  author  takes  opportunity  to  point  out  those 
who  failed  to  stand  the  test.  "They  went  out  from  us," 
but  the  true  sons  abide.  Upon  them  descends  the  holy 
chrism  even  as  the  dove  descended  upon  the  Lord  him- 
self as  he  stood  beneath  the  riven  heavens  upon  the 
banks  of  Jordan.  The  positive  aspects  of  sonship  are 
presented  in  chapter  three,  verses  one  through  five;  the 
negative,  in  verses  six  through  nine;  and  the  contrast 
between  the  children  of  God  and  the  children  of  the 
devil  is  drawn  in  verses  ten  through  thirteen. 

With  the  thirteenth  verse  of  chapter  three  he  begins 
to  enumerate  the 

Tests  of  Sonship 

They  come  in  quick  succession.     They  are:    Sacrifice 


Peter  and  John  139 

(3:  16),  assurance  <3:  19),  and  the  possession  of  the 
Spirit  (3:  24). 

So  far  these  five  have  to  do  with  the  individual  Chris- 
tian in  his  relation  to  Christ  as  Lord  and  Example,  to 
his  fellow  Christians,  and  to  God.  But  he  has  other  re- 
lations, and  for  the  proper  determination  of  these  he 
must  have  tests.  He  must  be  able  to  detect  false  inter- 
preters of  Christianity.  What  is  the  touchstone  he  must 
apply?  This  is  given  in  chapter  four,  verse  two:  son- 
ship  in  terms  of  flesh  and  blood.  This  is  the  great  com- 
mandment of  the  new  dispensation,  and  there  is  no  sec- 
ond lik«  unto  it.  Then,  too,  there  are  relations  sprung 
by  the  publication  of  the  message  on  the  part  of  the 
Christian.  How  is  he  to  tell  the  character  of  his  audi- 
tors? The  answer  is:  "He  that  knoweth  God  heareth 
us;  he  who  is  not  of  God  heareth  us  not.  Hereby  we 
know  the  spirit  of  truth,  and  the  spirit  of  error"  (4:  6). 

But,  after  all,  the  orbit  of  a  Christian's  life  has  only 
two  foci:  God,  his  Father,  and  God's  children,  his  breth- 
ren. How  are  we  to  know  that  we  are  "in  focus"  here? 
In  chapter  four,  verse  thirteen,  the  Spirit  graciously 
gives  us  divine  authority  for  the  one;  and  in  chapter 
five,  verse  two,  our  love  for  God  and  our  performance 
of  his  commands  give  us  practical  demonstration  of  the 
other. 

This  ninefold  test  is  further  buttressed  by  the  witness 
of  God  himself  (5:  7-10).  This  is  borne  through  the 
Spirit,  based  upon  the  Incarnate  Son,  and  consists  in  the 
conscious  possession  of  eternal  life.  Two  summarizing 
paragraphs,  the  experiential  knowledge  of  eternal  life 
(5:  13-17)  and  the  external  demonstration  of  it  (5:  18- 
20),  conclude  the  letter.  The  last  sentence  (5:  21)  is  a 
bugle  blast  to  call  the  Christian  Church  of  all  times 
away  from  the  empty  vanities  of  a  merely  institutional- 
ized religiosity  to  the  satisfying  richness  of  a  divinely 
revealed  and  humanly  realized  fellowship  in  the  life 
eternal. 


140         The  Story  of  the  New  Testament 

Thought  Questions 

1.  Reflect  upon  the  friendship  of  Peter  and  John,  the 
writers  of  the  remaining  five  Of  the  so-called  Catholic 
Epistles.  Think  of  their  differences  Of  mental  organiza- 
tion, temperament,  character,  and  experience  in  the 
Christian  life,  and  note  how  admirably  they  comple- 
mented each  other  in  the  work  of  the  kingdom  of  God. 

2.  What  are  some  of  the  critical  problems  presented 
by  these  five  letters,  and  how  do  they  affect  your  view 
of  the  authorship?  In  the  face  of  these  critical  difficul- 
ties is  the  message  of  the  letters  weakened;  or  do  you 
feel  the  spiritual  power  of  it  just  the  same? 

3.  What  is  the  dominant  note  of  First  Peter,  and  what 
do  we  learn  from  it  of  Peter's  experience?  When  Peter 
wrote  the  passage  in  1  Peter  2:  1-10  was  he  thinking  of 
Jesus's  epithet  "Rock"  many  years  before  applied  to 
himself,  and  was  he,  perhaps,  interpreting  its  mean- 
ing? 

4.  See  whether  you  can  relate  every  section  of  Peter's 
first  letter  to  either  the  suffering  saint  or  the  suffering 
Saviour. 

5.  What  is  the  heart  of  the  message  of  Second  Peter? 
How  does  it  bear  upon  certain  shortrcut  theories  of  Chris- 
tian character? 

6.  How  does  Second  Peter  meet  the  sneer  that  the 
expected  coming  of  the  Lord  had  been  a  disappointment? 
How  does  his  answer  bear  upon  present-day  vagaries  ol" 
Adventism? 

7.  How  does  Third  John  throw  light  upon  the  life  of 
the  early  Church,  especially  the  prevailing  way  of  pro- 
pagating the  faith? 

8.  Is  Second  John  addressed  to  a  Church  or  to  an  in- 
dividual member  of  a  Church;  and  in  this  letter  do  you 
find  a  message  complementary  to  Third  John? 

9.  Although  classified  with  the  Catholic  Epistles,  is 
First  John  properly  speaking  a  letter?  And,  consider- 
ing its  tremendous  importance  in  comparison  with 
Second  and  Third  John,  would  you  not  infer  that  the 
two  latter  had  been  preserved  as  appendices  to  the 
larger  document? 

10.  Do  the  erroneous  teachings  combated  in  First 
John  afford  any  clue  to  its  date?  If  they  do,  how  late 
in  the  history  of  the  Christian  Church  would  you  place 
this  homily? 

11.  How  many  of  the  "tests"  proposed  in  First  John 
can  you  give? 


IX.  TWO  TRACTS  FOR  TIMES  OF  TRAN- 
SITION:  HEBREWS  AND  REVELATION 


Passages  for  J>aily  Readings 

Sunday.— Christ  the  Son  of  God  Greater  Than  Proph- 
ets  and  Angels.     Hebrews  1:  1-14. 

Monday.— Christ  the  Son  of  God  Greater  Than  Moses, 
Greater  Than  Aaron.    Hebrews  .3:  1-6;  5:  1-10. 

Tuesday. — The  Final  Priesthood  and  the  Perfect  Sacri- 
fice.    Hebrews  9:  23-10:  10-18. 

Wednesday. — A  Salutation  and  a  Vision  of  the  Glori- 
fied Christ,    Revelation  1:  4-20. 

Thursday. — From  Jesus  Ascended  to  ihQ  Churches  on 
the  Field  of  History.     Revelation  2. 

Friday. — Jesus's  Messages  to  the  Churches  Continued. 
Revelation  3. 

Saturday. — The  Judgment  of  Corrupt  and  Godless 
Civilization.  Revelation  19:  1-10.  The  New  Kingdom 
of  God.     Revelation  21:  1-8. 


Introduction 

Having  traversed  the  Pauline  writings  and  "what 
are  called  the  Catholic  Epistles,  we  are  now  ready 
to  glance  at  the  two  remaining  books  of  the  epis- 
tolary section  of  our  New  Testament  Scriptures.  These 
are  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  and  the  book  of  Revela- 
tion. It  is  well  that  we  take  these  together;  for,  despite 
certain  well-marked  differences,  these  writings  have  at 
least  one  or  two  points  of  contact,  the  greatest  one 
doubtless  being  that  they  may  both  be  called  Epistles 
of  Exhortation  and  Consolation  for  the  Church  in  times 
of  great  crises. 

The  Hebrews  is  by  far  the  less  intricate  of  the  two, 
and  hence  we  shall  do  well  to  consider  it  first.  Our  first 
paragraph  will  serve  to  review  some  principles  found 
helpful  in  our  previous  study,  i 

The  moment  we  pick  up  any  book  of  the  Bible  sev- 
eral questions  at  once  clamor  for  answer.  First  of  all, 
we  wish  to  know  who  wrote  it  in  order  that  we  may 

(141) 


142         The  Story  of  the  New  Testament 

properly  estimate  its  authority;  secondly,  we  ask,  "To 
whom  was  it  directed?"  in  order  that  we  may  rightly 
appreciate  the  form  of  the  writing  and  the  force  of  the 
arguments  employed.  Again,  we  have  a  curiosity  to 
know  ichy  this  particular  author  addressed  this  particu- 
lar Church  or  people  in  order  that  we  may  obtain  a 
proper  view  of  the  occasion  which  prompted  the  writ- 
ing, A  fourth  question  we  should  like  answered  is, 
"When  was  the  work  written?"  because  the  answer  to 
this  helps  much  in  getting  the  historical  situation  and 
in  explaining  any  references  to  contemporary  events 
the  writing  may  contain.  Again,  we  wish  to  discover, 
if  possible,  hoiv  the  author  set  about  to  achieve  his  end; 
and,  finally,  we  particularly  wish  to  know  what  he 
really  said — in  other  words,  we  wish  to  find  out  the 
"teaching"  the  writer  h^s  embodied  in  his  production 
in  order  that  we  may  get  illumination  and  inspiration 
for  our  own  spiritual  life. 

With  regard  to  some  books-  in  the  Bible  we  can  get 
satisfactory  answers  to  all  these  questions,  and  these 
correct  answers  are  what  make  those  books  live  anew 
in  our  day;  with  regard  to  other  books,  however,  we 
have  to  be  content  with  fewer  points  of  real  knowledge. 
Preeminent  among  such  books  is 

The  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews 

one  of  the  most  important,  theologically,  and  precious, 
religiously,  of  all  the  books  that  enter  into  our  canon, 
but  at  the  same  time  a  book  which  presents  some  of  the 
most  puzzling  problems  known  to  New  Testament 
science.  In  fact.  It  seems  to  flash  across  the  path  of  the 
Church  like  its  own  Melchizedek,  and  stand  there  sub- 
limely alone,  "without  father  or  mother,  without  gene- 
alogy," but  at  the  same  time  "having  no  end  of  life." 
For  it  is  a  fact  that,  despite  our  great  ignorance  of 
many  points  connected  with  this  book,  its  insistent  and 
consistent  appeal  to  the  Christian  consciousness  all 
through  the  centuries  has  been  constantly  heard,  and 
this  Epistle  more  than  any  other  has  left  its  mark  upon 


Hehreics  and  Revelation  14;^> 

the  formularies  of  the  faith;  it  has  had  a  great  influ- 
ence in  shaping  various  theories  of  the  atonement;  it 
has  always  stood  without  a  rival  in  the  significance  it 
attaches  to  the  priestly  office  of  our  Lord;  and  no  book 
in  all  the  range  of  revelation  gives  us  such  a  compre- 
hensive conception  of  the  divine-human  person  of  the 
Saviour. 

As  this  power  of  the  book  is  a  fact  beyond  dispute,  we 
shall  doubtless  do  well  to  begin  with  our  last  question 
and  ask  them  all  over  in  reverse  order.  Hence  our  first 
interrogation  becomes: 

What  Is  the  Teaching  of  This  Marvelous 
Manuscript? 

The  limits  of  this  study,  of  course,  prohibit  any  de- 
tail; fortunately,  it  is  not  necessary.  This  writer  knows 
what  he  wants  to  do ;  and  if  we  are  in  search  of  his  cen- 
tral doctrine,  we  find  it  given  in  the  key  verse  to  the 
Epistle  (7:  19),  where  he  describes  Christianity  as'  "a 
better  hope  through  which  we  draw  nigh  to  God." 
Hence  the  author's  theme  is  the  "Finality  of  Faith"  as 
revealed  in  Christ.  He  enterprises  a  study  in  compara- 
tive religion  and  lays  down  as  his  conception  of  the  ab- 
solute or  final  religion  the  guaranteeing  of  free  and  per- 
fect access  to  God.  If  religion  fails  here,  however  im- 
posing its  ritual  or  logical  its  teaching,  the  failure  is 
dismal.  Judaism,  the  highest  type  of  religion  known 
hitherto,  has  failed  (10:  1-4);  Christianity  has,  in  the 
author's  opinion  and  experience,  succeeded  gloriously. 
God  has  come  nigh  to  men  in  that  he  has  partaken  of 
flesh  and  blood  in  the  person  of  the  Son,  and  men  may 
now  come  with  boldness  into  his  very  presence  with  the 
assurance  divinely  inwrought  that  they  will  find  grace 
to  help  in  every  time  of  need.  With  this  as  the  central 
idea  of  the  writing,  we  see  at  a  glance 

The  Logic  of  the  Method  Employed 

.  If  Christianity  is  the  final  word  of  God  to  men,  there 
must  be  a  sense  in  which  it  contrasts  with  all  antecedent 


144         The  Story  of  the  New  Testament 

revelations  of  his  will  and  purpose.  There  have  been 
antecedent  revelations,  for  our  author  is  far  from  being 
a  deist.  Granted  God's  existence,  his  fundamental  faith 
is:  "God  speaks."  In  this  thought  God  is  no  mute  mind 
wrapped  forever  in  the  gloom  and  isolation  of  its  own 
infinite  mystery;  but  God  is  a  thinking,  speaking,  acting 
Person  who  has  made  all  eternity  thrill  with  his  pres- 
ence and  all  time  vocal  with  his  purpose.  "By  divers 
portions  and  in  divers  manners"  has  this  antecedent 
revelation  come.  All  created  existences  have  from  time 
to  time  become  channels — prophets,  angels,  lawgivers, 
priests — these  all  in  their  several  spheres  have  connected 
God  with  the  world.  Now,  another  bond  has  been  dis- 
closed, another  Voice  has  joined  in  to  consummate  the 
chorus.  He  has  spoken  by  his  Son!  The  last  word  for 
which  all  these  other  words  were  preparatory  has  been 
uttered,  for  the  Word  himself  has  become  incarnate. 

It  is  on  the  basis  of  this  supremacy  of  Christianity  as 
the  absolute  religion  and  the  preeminence  of  the  Son  as 
the  Agent  of  redemption  that  the  author  institutes  his 
remarkable 

Series  of  Contrasts 

between  Christ  and  prophets,  Christ  and  angels,  Christ 
and  Moses,  and  Christ  and  Aaron.  Little  stress  is  laid 
upon  the  first,  as  the  writer  contents  himself  with  two 
words  as  giving  the  key  to  Christ's  superiority  over  the 
channels  of  prophetic  revelation.  These  words  are  "frag- 
mentary" and  "topical"  <1:  1) — that  is,  the  message 
that  came,  to  men  by  prophets  came  bit  by  bit  ("in 
many  parts"),  and  also  it  came  in  different  forms  ("in 
many  modes").  By  implication  the  revelation  brought 
by  Christ  is  free  from  each  of  these  limitations  in  that 
it  is  both  full  and  final. 

The  contrast  between  Christ  and  angels  Is  wrought 
out  more  fully,  doubtless,  because  of  the  peculiar  fasci- 
nation angelology  had  for  the  readers.  In  their  mind 
there  was  a  temptation  to  make  the  angels  rivals  of 
Christ  in  redemption.     Hence  the  writer  shows  the  su- 


Hehreics  and  Revelation  145 

premacy  of  Christ  in  the  threefold  contrast:  Son  and 
servants  (1:  5,  6),  King  and  subjects  (1:  7-9),  and  Crea- 
tor and  creatures  (1:  10-13).  He  draws  the  conclusion 
from  all  this  that  the  angelic  function  is  to  serve,  not 
to  save..  Angels,  therefore,  are  not  sources,  but  Instru- 
ments; they  are  not  to  be  worshiped,  but  to  be  workers 
in  the  interest  of  those  who  are  heirs  of  salvation  (1: 
14). 

Moses  also,  the  paragon  of  revelation  hitherto,  occu- 
pies a  lower  place  than  Christ.  But  this  writer  knows 
how  to  show  the  inferiority  of  the  great  lawgiver  with- 
out discrediting  him.  To  do  this  would  have  been  a 
serious  defect  in  judgment.  Therefore  he  clearly  main- 
tains a  high  regard  for  this  supreme  character  In  Jew- 
ish history,  while  at  the  same  time  he  demonstrates  his 
subordinate  rank  when  he  is  contrasted  with  Christ. 
There  is  one  point  of  similarity — both  were  faithful. 
But  at  once  the  point  of  departure  is  given:  Moses  was 
a  servant  in  GocVs  house;  Christ  is  a  Son  in  his  own 
(3)! 

'  The  fourth  and  final  contrast  is  that  instituted  be- 
tween 

Christ  and  Aaron 

This  is  drawn  out  at  much  length;  not,  to  be  sure, 
because  the  author  of  Hebrews  had  a  proportionately 
greater  regard  for  the  high  priest  than  for  his  brother 
the  lawgiver,  but  because  the  people  who  were  to  read 
his  message  did  have.  The  writer's  point  is  perfectly 
clear.  He  declares  with  almost  brutal  bluntness:  "It  is 
impossible  that  the  blood  of  bulls  and  goats  should  take 
away  sin."  He  knows  both  by  experience  and  observa- 
tion the  impotence  of  the  whole  ritualistic  system.  In 
itself  it  is  nothing;  it  is  purely  pedagogical;  it  serves 
for  illustration  and  education,  but  it  is  incapable  of 
bringing  salvation.  It  is  beautiful  and  inspiring  to  look 
upon,  but  it  has  no  power  to  cleanse  the  conscience 
(9:  9,  10). 
Aaron,  its  head,  is  a  "sacerdotal  slave,"  drudging 
10 


146         The  Story  of  the  New  Testament 

through  a  series  of  perfunctory  details,  himself  one  of  a 
sinful  series  who  must  offer  up  daily  sacrifice  for  himself 
as  well  as  for  the  people.  This  is  the  writer's  view; 
with  the  readers  it  is  far  different.  Aaron  and  what 
he  stands  for  evidently  filled  nearly  their  whole  horizon. 
The  glamour  of  that  elaborate  ritual  held  them  with  its 
fascinating  spell.  The  external  trappings  of  priestly 
paraphernalia  meant  more  to  them  than  the  beauty  of 
a  heart  cleansed  from  sin.  Hence  the  delicate  task  of 
their  teacher.  He  must  contrast  and  yet  not  asperse; 
he  must  show  Christ  superior  and  yet  not  wound  the 
sensibilities  of  those  he  seeks  to  save.  And  so  he 
estimates  at  its  highest  worth  the  whole  Aaronic  dis- 
pensation and,  using  it  as  a  background,  throws  into 
even  clearer  light  the  transcendently  final  offering  of 
the  one  great  High  Priest,  who  was  made  not  after  the 
law  of  a  carnal  commandment,  but  after  the  power  ct 
an  endless  life  (7:  16;  9:  23-28). 

If  our  answers  to  the  "what"  and  the  "how"  of  thia 
Epistle  are  correct,  they  in  some  measure  suggest  the* 
time 

When  It  Was  Written 

for  our  author  is  no  archaeological  expert  airing  his 
knowledge  of  antiquity,  but  an  open-eyed  observer  of 
contemporary  conditions.  This  means  that  the  writ- 
ing antedates  the  fall  of  Jerusalem;  after  this  time  such 
a  production  would  be  the  ne  plus  ultra  of  impertinent 
pedantry.'  Again,  the  historical  note  in  13:  23,  referring 
to  Timothy's  release,  while  not  absolutely  decisive,  looks 
to  an  early  date;  and  we  are  disposed  to  decide  that 
the  letter  was  written  at  some  time  between  the  death  of 
Paul  and  the  fall  of  Jerusalem — that  is,  in  the  last  pentad 
of  the  seventh  decade  of  the  first  century,  just  before 
the  beginning  of  that  awful  Jewish  war  the  outcome 
of  which  was  a  national  calamity  of  hitherto  unpre- 
cedented proportions. 

/ 


Hehrews  and  Revelation  147 

The  ''Why"'  of  the  Writing 

is  sufficiently  disclosed  from  time  to  time  by  the  author 
himself  in  the  numerous  exhortations  which  inter- 
sperse the  argumentative  sections  and  constitute  the 
closing  sections.  Indeed,  he  himself  authorizes  us  in 
stating  that  the  Epistle  as  a  whole  is  a  hortatory  dis- 
course (13:  22).  This  implies  that  his  readers  are  in 
danger  at  some  point  in  their  Christian  life;  and  when 
we  couple  such  passages  as  2:  3,  4:  1,  5:  4-8,  and  10: 
26-39,  which  contain  such  strong  warnings  against  fall- 
ing away,  with  the  great  roll  call -of  the  eleventh  chap- 
ter, where  every  incentive  is  urged  to  inspire  them  to 
be  faithful  even  unto  death,  we  can  hardly  miss  the  fact 
when  we  aver  that  these  people  were  under  strong 
temptation  to  give  up  Christianity  and  revert  to  a  for- 
mer religious  status.  This  must  have  been  Judaism; 
and  so  the  situation  is  that  these  Christian  Jews,  under 
the  lure  of  the  Levitical  dispensation  as  contrasted  with 
the  simplicity  and  isolation  of  the  Christian  profession, 
were  under  a  great  strain  to  go  back  to  their  former 
faith.  The  author  knows  that  this  is  doomed;  already 
Jerusalem  is  marked  for  destruction;  they  must  not 
cling  to  a  phantom.  He  therefore  shows  them  the  per- 
manent and  abiding. 

Who  Is  the  Writer 

that  flings  himself  into  the  breach  and  seeks  to  save 
these  people  from  the  temptation  that  threatens  to  de- 
stroy their  faith?  Here  the  answers  have  been  many. 
Paul,  Barnabas,  Luke,  Clement  of  Rome,  and  others  have 
been  urged  as  candidates  for  the  high  honor  of  father- 
ing this  truly  noble  production.  Some  critics  have 
found  traces  of  double  authorship,  even  to  the  detection 
of  a  feminine  touch,  and  have  suggested  as  colaborators 
those  true  Christian  yokefellows  Aquila  and  Priscilla. 
These  are  all  guesses  more  or  less  desperate.  Probably 
the  happiest  guess  so  far  is  that  revived  by  Luther, 
who  hit  upon  Apollos.     This  solution  has  found  many 


148         The  JStory  of  the  Js'ew  Testament 

sponsors  in  modern  times,  though  it  is  based  largely  on 
our  ignorance.  Perhaps  if  our  information  were  fuller 
we  should  not  accord  him  the  honor.  But  as  it  hap- 
pens, our  sole  description  of  him  is  that  he  "was  an 
eloquent  man,  and  mighty  in  the  Scriptures";  and  we 
know  that  the  writer  of  the  Hebrews  was  eloquent  and 
mighty  in  the  Scriptures,  therefore  we  conclude  that 
Apollos  is  the  auth.or.  Such  is  the  limping  logic  of 
Luther  and  his  satellites  on  this  point.  Such  a  con- 
clusion is  not  disprovable,  but  it  is  not  therefore  final. 
In  fact,  the  only  thing  clevionstrably  certain  with  re- 
gard to  the  authorship  of  this  majestic  message  is  that 
Paul  was  not  its  author.  With  regard,  however,  to  any- 
thing positive,  we  must  maintain  the  modest  attitude 
of  Origen,  who,  while  he  had  his  opinion,  was  satisfied 
to  say:  "Who  wrote  the  Epistle  God  alone  certainly 
knows." 

Is  there  not  a  sublime  logic  in  our  lack  of  knowledge 
on  this  point?  This  writing  stands  for  the  supreme 
significance  of  the  Saviour.  Why  should  the  personality 
of  the  author,  however  great,  obtrude  itself?  It  stands 
for  the  final  message  of  the  Son;  why  exalt  the  human 
medium?  It  stands  for  the  absolute  religion;  why  Im- 
poverish this  by  insistence  on  the  individual  idiosyn- 
crasy of  the  author?  Such  questions  he  himself  asked 
and  answered  by  the  complete  obliteration  of  himself. 
In  spirit  he  would  have  all  men  hear  the  voice  that 
broke  the  stillness  of  the  transfiguration  scene:  "This 
is  my  beloved  Son:  hear  him." 

And  so  the  New  Testament,  like  the  Old  Testament, 
has  its  "great  unknown."  This  author  of  apostolic  days, 
like  his  counterpart,  the  Prophet  of  the  Exile,  transmits 
to  us  with  a  purity  of  diction,  a  stateliness  of  style, 
a  fervor  of  eloquence,  and  a  majesty  of  thought  well- 
nigh  unparalleled  in  the  pages  of  inspiration,  not  his 
name  to  satisfy  our  curiosity,  but  his  message  to  fortify 
our  faith. 


Eehrews  and  Revelation  149 

The  Revelation 

From  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews,  which  registers 
the  victory  of  Christianity  as  a  final  religion  in  com- 
petition with  the  highest  religion  hitherto  known,  Juda- 
ism, we  turn  now  to  the  Apocalypse,  or  Revelation, 
which  registers  the  victory  of  the  Christian  spirit  as  a 
final  form  of  civilization  over  all  forms  of  civilization, 
even  the  highest  civilization  hitherto  known — the  Graeco- 
Roman.  The  range  of  the  book  is  therefore  much  wider 
and  its  currents  manifold  and  frequently  confusing. 
The  type  of  literature  presented  is  alike  unique;  though 
as  it  contains  real  epistolary  elements  and  is  in  its  en- 
tirety designed  to  be  read  in  certain  definite  churches, 
we  are  justified  in  closing  our  study  of  the  Letters  of 
the  New  Testament  by  a  brief  reference  to  this  remark- 
able production.  Let  us  group  our  study  around  three 
or  four  points. 

The  kind  of  literature  represented  in  the  look  under 
consideration  is  that  known  as  apocalyptic.  The  name 
of  the  book  in  Greek  is  Apocalypse,  which  has  its  Latin 
equivalent  in  Revelation.  This  type  of  literature  is 
found  elsewhere  in  our  Bible.  There  are,  for  example, 
in  the  Old  Testament  apocalyptic  elements  in  Joel,  Eze- 
kiel,  and  Zechariah ;  in  the  New  Testament  we  have  illus- 
trations in  the  Synoptic  Gospels  and  in  Second  Thessa- 
lonians.  But  the  outstanding  apocalyptic  writings  of  our 
Bible  are  for  the  Old  Testament  the  book  of  Daniel  and 
for  the  New  the  book  of  Revelation;  and,  naturally 
enough,  both  seem  to  emanate  from  periods  near  the 
close  of  each  section  of  the  canonical  writings — the  one 
from  the  period  of  the  horrible  abominations  of  Anti- 
ochus  Epiphanes,  the  other  from  the  bloody  persecution 
of  the  age  of  Domitian.  It  is  this  suggestion  that  gives 
us  the  explanation  of  the  rise  of  this  type  of  literature. 
Apocalypses  are  the  children  of  stress  and  storm,  the 
offspring   of   periods   of   desperate   conditions,    rallying 


150         The  Story  of  the  New  Testament 

cries  sent  forth  to  hearten  combatants  just  on  the  eve 
of  rout  and  ruin.  Hence  they  usually  come  in  the  name 
of  a  great  leader;  and  in  times  when  the  forces' of  earth 
and  hell  join  hard  against  the  ranks  of  the  righteous 
and  threaten  to  sweep  them  from  the  field  in  utter  de- 
feat, one  of  the  undaunted  souls  betakes  himself  to 
some  point  of  vantage  where  he  can  get  above  the  dust 
and  confusion  of  present  conflict,  for  a  time  holds  high 
converse  with  the  heroes  of  the  past,  with  prescient  eye 
looks  beyond  the  present  distress  and  in  the  clear  light 
of  God's  eternal  day  reads  the  outcome  of  the  age-long 
struggle  of  which  the  present  battle  is  but  an  incident, 
and  then,  with  the  glow  of  a  divine  optimism  shining 
in  his  face  and  the  clarion  note  of  victory  ringing  on 
his  tongue,  comes  down  from  his  peak  of  privilege  to 
nerve  the  hand  and  inspire  the  heart  of  his  fellows  and 
lead  them  on  to  triumph.  It  is  not  strange,  then,  that 
the  period  between  165  B.C.  and  100  A.D.  should  be 
fairly  full  of  such  writings,  for  surely  the  external  con- 
ditions were  such  as  to  call  loudly  for  them.  Hence 
we  find  that  during  these  years,  first,  Jews  and,  later, 
Jewish  Christians  fed  their  hopes  and  fired  their  hearts 
by  contact  with  the  great  spirits  of  antiquity  who  spoke 
to  them  in  such  wonderful  personages  as  Enoch,  the 
seventh  from  Adam,  Moses,  Baruch,  the  friend  of  Jere- 
miah, and  Esdras.  Other  writings  of  this  type  are  the 
"Psalms  of  Solomon,"  which  Pompey's  invasion  of  Pales- 
tine called  forth,  the  "Testaments  of  the  Twelve  Patri- 
archs." and  the  "Sibylline  Oracles,"  this  last  being  in  all 
probability  the  most  valuable  in  elucidating  the  apoca- 
lypse of  John. 

This  brings  us  to  consider  next  the  question  whether 
ajwcalypticism  is  not  a  merely  accidental  element  in  the 
Christian  writings  due  to  their  connection  with  Judaism 
and  Judaistic  forms  of  expression.  We  can  at  least  say 
this  much:  that  if  there  is  any  Christian  element  it  is 
to  be  got  by  passing  by  as  mere  technical  drapery  all 
the    phantasmagoria    of    apocalyptic    phraseology    and 


Hebrews  and  Revelation  151 

seeking  to  define  as  clearly  as  we  may  the  underlying 
principle  involved.  For  surely  to  interpret  such  a  book 
as  the  one  that  closes  our  canon  in  any  strictly  literal 
sense  is  not  only  unscientific,  but  highly  unchristian. 
To  put  the  case  succinctly:  Christianity  is  the  revela- 
tion of  a  spirit  that  runs  counter  to  the  selfishness  and 
sin  of  this  world;  there  ensues  necessarily  a  conflict 
bitter  and  prolonged;  the  outcome  of  this  conflict,  we 
cannot  doubt,  is  victory  for  God  and  the  right;  the 
Christian  of  the  first  century  read  this  victory  in  terms 
of  bloody  destruction  of  the  world;  this  was  the  only 
way  he  could  make  his  message  grip  the  minds  and 
Btir  the  hearts  of  his  hearers.  But  has  not  the  all- 
conquering  Spirit  of  Christ  conquered  even  this  form 
of  conquest?  Does  not  our  reading  of  the  history  of 
God's  kingdom  on  earth  as  an  ever-developing  principle 
of  life  permeating  all  phases  of  man's  manifold  relations 
rob  us  to  some  extent  of  the  dramatic  vividness  which 
the  cataclysmic  interpretation  of  Oriental  thinking  sup- 
plied? Be  this  as  it  may,  eliminate  all  the  technical 
extravaganza  seemingly  so  necessary  to  the  writer's  and 
reader's  mind — the  horses  of  all  colors,  earthquakes  and 
eclipses,  trumpet  blasts  on  land  and  sea,  falling  stars 
and  swarms  of  locusts,  dragons  with  seven  heads  and 
ten  horns,  angels  reaping  the  earth,  glassy  seas  mingled 
with  fire,  bowls  of  wrath,  falling  Babylons,  and  descend- 
ing cities  of  God — eliminate  all  these  by.  reason  of  their 
being  a  tongue  "not  understanded  of"  us  modern  Occi- 
dental folk,  and  still  there  stands  before  us  in  simple 
yet  majestic  outline  the  great  message  of  the  book. 

The  all-conquering  Spirit  of  Christ.  This  is  a  theme 
not  to  be  argued,  but  to  be  described;  hence  the  medium 
of  revelation  is  vision.  A  series  of  scenes  is  given,  and 
the  locus  and  dramatis  personce  are  continually  shifting 
— now  Patmos,  now  heaven,  now  land,  now  sea,  now  the 
abyss,  now  the  Euphrates,  now  Rome,  now  Jerusalem 
above,  now  hell  with  all  its  horrors,  now  the  resplendent 
glories  of  a  redeemed  and  purified  earth.  In  all  these 
places  Christ  is  Master  supreme;  all  persons  and  crea« 


152         The  Story  of  the  New  Testament 

tures  and  things  yield  him  full  and  final  obeisance. 
This  is  the  one  great  principle  the  writer  wishes  to 
get  into  the  hearts  of  his  readej-s.  It  is  the  transmis- 
sion to  the  collective  Church  all  through  the  ages  of  the 
thrilling  inspiration  that  dispelled  once  for  all  the  ter- 
ror of  the  few  disciples  in  the  upper  room  when  Jesus 
breathed  into  their  quaking  hearts  the  fortifj'^ing  conso- 
lation: "In  the  world  ye  shall  have  tribulation;  but  be 
of  good  cheer;  I  have  overcome  the  world." 

How  this  purpose  is  carried  out  is  shown  by  a  general 
glance  at  the  plan  of  the  book.  After  a  prologue  con- 
sisting of  an  expanded  superscription  (1:  1-3)  and  a  salu- 
tation which  for  comprehensiveness  and  grandeur  is  un- 
surpassed (1:  4-8),  the  writer  details  what  to  him  Is  the 
most  important  feature  of  his  whole  experience.  This 
is  his  wonderfully  inspiring 

Vision  of  the  Christ 

He  was  himself  in  need  of  just  such  help  as  could  come 
only  from  an  all-conquering  One;  for  was  he  not  a  com- 
panion in  tribulation  of  those  Asian  Christians  whom  he 
sought  to  hearten?  Was  he  not  an  exile,  banished  by 
the  brutal  cruelty  of  worldly  pride  and  insolence?  It 
was  on  a  Sunday,  and  as  the  ecstasy  seized  him  he  heard 
a  voice  like  the  voice  of  a  trumpet.  But  what  he  saw 
was  far  more  wonderful;  he  saw  seven  golden  candle- 
sticks, and  in  the  midst  of  these  "one  like  unto  the  Son 
of  man,"  and  yet  how  unlike!  Language  limps  and  the 
most  fantastic  figures  ^fail  in  their  attempt  to  indicate 
the  glory  of  this  sight.  The  eyes  like  a  flame  of  fire,  the 
feet  like  burnished  brass,  the  voice  like  the  voice  of 
many  waters,  the  right  hand  that  grasped  the  seven 
stars,  the  two-edged  sword  that  shot  forth  from  his 
mouth,  the  countenance  that  shone  like  the  sun  in  his 
splendor — all  this  was  too  much  for  him  that  had  leaned 
upon  the  breast  of  the  Master.  Such  power,  such  glory 
he  had  never  connected  with  even  the  Stiller  of  the  storm 
or  the  Raider  of  the  dead!  In  simple  but  sublime  elo- 
quence this  writer,  who  had  looked  deepest  into  the  heart 


Hebrews  and  Revelation  153 

of  Jesus  during  the  days  of  his  flesh  and  had  walked 
with  him  unabashed,  even  requesting  a  place  at  his  right 
hand,  declares:  "When  I  saw  him,  I  fell  at  his  feet  like 
a  corpse."  Nor  was  there  any  point  of  contact  till  that 
same  right  hand  that  grasped  the  seven  stars,  the  hand 
that  had  waved  the  winds  to  rest  in  the  good  old  Gali- 
lean days,  the  hand  that  had  broken  the  bread  and 
touched  the  leper  back  to  health — this  hand  fell  in  gra- 
cious benediction  on  the  head  of  the  awe-stricken  seer, 
and  into  his  ears  there  flowed  the  sweet  music  of  the 
Master's  gentle  "Fear  not."  Then  came  the  revelation 
of  his  primacy  as  the  ever-living  One,  and  from  the  great 
heights  of  this  vision  of  the  ascended  Lord  there  comes 
into  view 

The  Vision  of  Weak  and  Wicked  Churches 

The  two  are  correlates.  How  far  the  Church  at  times 
is  from  her  Lord,  yet  how  close  in  love  and  sympathy 
and  discipline  he  is  to  her  despite  her  failures  and  his 
grandeur!  These  Churches  are  in  great  heathen  centers; 
sin  is  rampant;  each  in  turn  is  addressed  in  tones  of 
rebuke  or  encouragement  as  the  case  demands;  and  so 
far  as  these  particular  Churches  and  their  several  needs 
were  concerned,  the  letter  might  have  ended  here.  But 
a  great  principle  is  embodied  in  their  experiences;  they 
are  not  simply  themselves;  they  embody  an  age-long  par- 
able. The  conflict  of  the  ages  is  manifesting  itself  for 
the  time  in  their  case;  they  are  part  and  parcel  of  the 
universal  travail.  Hence  the  writer  would,  on  the  au- 
thority of  their  risen  Lord,  lift  them  out  of  their  pro- 
vincialism and  selfish  isolation  and,  raising  them  to  the 
plane  of  the  heavenly  places  by  a  series  of  shifting 
scenes — now  in  time,  now  in  eternity,  now  on  earth,  now 
in  heaven — would  seek  to  imbue  them  with  a  sense  of 
the  transcendent  glory  of  their  calling  and  the  ultimate 
victory  of  their  cause  in  order  that  he  might  give  them 
somewhat  of  the  strength  of  the  all-conquering  Christ. 

It  is  logical,  therefore,  that  the  next  scene  should  be 
set  amid  the 


154         The  Story  of  the  New  Testament 

Enduring  Splendors  of  Heaven  Itself 

Here  (4  and  5)  a  glimpse  is  given  of  the  glory  of  the 
Creator  and  the  glory  of  the  Redeemer.  The  eternal 
throng  in  all  nature  are  depicted  as  rendering  God 
homage,  the  twenty-four  elders  joining  in  with  the  song 
of  creation's  story.    But 

"  'Twas  great  to  speak  a  world  from  naught, 
'Twas  greater  to  redeem"; 

and  so  we  find  the  second  phase  of  this  vision  which 
heralds  the  glory  of  the  Redeemer  closing  with  a  new 
song  in  which  the  story  of  redemption  is  sung,  and  then 
the  voices  of  angels  mingle  with  those  of  the  beasts  and 
of  the  elders  and  every  creation  which  is  in  the  heaven 
and  upon  the  earth  and  under  the  earth  and  upon  the 
sea  to  render  "blessing,  and  honor,  and  glory,  and 
might  to  him  that  sits  upon  the  throne,  and  to  the 
Lamb." 

These  are  the  forces  on  the  side  of  righteousness. 
What  have  they  already  accomplished?  This  is  shown 
in  two  phases:  The  vision  of  the  Redeemed,  first,  in 
Israel  (7:1-8);  and,  secondly,  among  all  nations  (7: 
8-17).     Next  in  order  comes 

The  Vision  of  the  Forces  of  Evil  and  Their  Defeat  in 
Heaven  il2-U) 

This  is  wrought  out  at  great  length,  and  some  sec- 
tions (notably  the  twelfth  chapter)  are  undeniably  Jew- 
ish to  the  core;  the  culminating  phase  of  this  division, 
however,  the  vision  of  the  Son  of  Man  in  power  (14: 
14-20),  has  many  elements  in  common  with  the  Synoptic 
Gospels. 

From  this  scene  of  heavenly  power  the  flight  is  swift 
and  sure  to  the  catastrophe  this  drama  is  tending  to- 
ward. The  center  of  power  on  earth  is  Rome.  If  it  can 
be  overthrown,  the  age-long  oppressor  of  God's  people, 
both  Jews  and  Christians  will  have  great  ground  for  re- 
joicing.    She  has  polluted  the  holy   place  and   defiled 


Hebrews  and  Revelation  155 

the  earth,  blasphemed  God  and  maltreated  men;  her 
existence  challenges  the  righteousness  of  the  Ruler  of 
the  universe;  she  is  therefore  doomed;  and  while  men 
of  earth  bewail  her  loss,  heaven  joins  in  hallelujahs, 
for  the  fall  of  the  harlot  city  is  the  signal  for 

The  Marriage  of  the  Lamh 

Earth  being  cleansed  from  the  foul  pollution  of  the 
imperial  cult,  the  Church  of  Christ  is  ready  to  become 
his  bride.  He  returns,  therefore,  in  triumph  and  regis- 
ters his  might  in  the  destruction  of  the  kings  of  earth, 
the  hurling  of  the  beasts  into  the  lake  of  fire,  the  bind- 
ing of  Satan  for  a  thousand  years,  and  the  inauguration 
of  the  millennial  reign  (19:  11-20:  6). 

Two  brief  paragraphs  are  taken  up  in  describing  the 
final  conflict  and  judgment  (20:  7-15),  and  then  the  final 
vision  of 

The  N^w  Jerusalem 
is  disclosed. 

Here  we  have  the  picture  of  a  perfect  social  order,  a 
new  heaven  and  a  new  earth;  no  tears,  no  death,  no 
mourning,  no  pain;  all  things  new;  no  fearful  ones,  no 
unbelievers,  no  murderers,  no  fornicators,  no  idolaters, 
no  liars — all  these  are  cast  out  forever.  Then  comes  a 
final  glimpse  of  the  glorious  Bride.  The  Churches  of 
Ephesus,  Smyrna,  Philadelphia,  Laodicea,  Pergamum, 
Thyatira,  Sardis,  of  Asia  and  the  world,  purged  of  all 
impurities,  without  stain  or  wrinkle,  enter  in  to  sit 
down  at  the  marriage  of  the  Lamb. 

No  wonder  after  such  a  vision  of  the  all-conquering 
Spirit  of  Christ  the  writer,  coming  back  to  earth  and 
the  hard  and  bitter  realities  of  the  cruel  Grseco-Roman 
world,  closes  his  wonderful  book  with  representing  the 
Spirit,  the  Church  on  earth,  and  all  who  hear  as  unit- 
ing in  the  earnest  prayer,  "Come,  come,  come";  nor 
does  he  drop  his  pen  before  he  has  heard  the  consoling 
word  of  Christ  himself:  "Yea,  I  am  coming  quickly." 
And  so  this  book  of  blood  and  war,  of  things  grotesque 
at  times  and  all  the  while  mysterious;  this  book  where 


156         The  Story  of  the  Neio  Testament 

ofttimes  confusion  seems  even  worse  confounded,  works 
its  way  to  final  victory  and  in  its  last  breath  voices  in 
calm  courage  its  undying  faith  in  Him  who  is  faithful 
and  true:  "Even  so,  come.  Lord  Jesus." 

Strangely  tragic  test  of  Christian  faith!  He  did  not 
come,  as  this  author  so  devoutly  wished  and  thought 
he  would.  His  ways  are  not  the  ways  of  Jewish  apoca- 
lyptics,  even  when  buttressed  by  the  name  and  fame  of 
the  disciple  whom  Jesus  loved.  As  he  said  to  him  once 
in  the  days  of  his  flesh,  so  since  that  day  he  has  said 
to  him  once  again:  "Ye  know  not  what  manner  of  Spirit 
ye  are  of."  But  he  is  coming  all  the  while,  though  not 
perhaps  in  the  way  our  feeble  faith  and  half-blinded 
eyes  are  picturing.  In  the  breaking  of  the  light  in 
heathen  minds,  in  the  purified  Christian  conscience,  in 
the  ever-developing  spirit  of  brotherhood,  in  the  slow 
but  sure  processes  of  the  spiritual  emancipation  of  the 
race,  Christ  is  coming,  a  new  heaven  and  a  new  earth 
are  being  born,  the  temple  of  God  is  more  and  more 
dwelling  among  men,  and  the  ever-thrilling  clarion 
call  of  our  common  humanity  as  it  toils  and  fights  and 
suffers  up  the  ragged  and  rugged  slopes  of  progress  Is: 

"On  from  the  bounds  of  the  waste, 
On  to  the  city  of  God!" 


Thought  Questions 

1.  Widely  dissimilar  as  they  are  in  many  respects, 
what  characteristic  in  common  have  Hebrews  and  Reve- 
lation? 

2.  In  what  estimation  has  Hebrews  always  been  held, 
and  what  are  the  reasons  for  this  appraisement  of  a 
book  of  origin  so  uncertain? 

3.  What  is  the  key  verse,  and  what  is  the  central  doc- 
trine of  Hebrews? 

4.  What  are  the  several  contrasted  modes  of  revelation 
of  which  the  writer  of  Hebrews  speaks,  and  why  is  this 
last  the  final  and  full  one? 

5.  What  hint  of  the  date  of  the  writing  of  Hebrews  is 
given  by  the  last  great  contrast — that  between  the 
priesthood  and  ritual  of  Aaron  and  the  priesthood  and 
institution  of  Christ?  And  how  is  this  hint  strengthened 


Hebrews  and  Revelation  157 

by  the  one  item  of  personal  biography  in  the  writing 
(13:  23)? 

6.  What  is  the  purpose  of  the  writing  of  Hebrews,  and 
for  whom  is  it  especially  designed?  Can  you  picture  a 
condition  that  would  have  made  this  writing  supremely 
timely? 

7.  Do  you  perceive  a  fitness  in  the  anonymity  of  this 
most  eloquent  of  the  New  Testament  writings? 

8.  With  what  Old  Testament  writing  is  the  Revelation 
classed?  What  in  common  were  the  circumstances  of 
the  writing  of  these  two  wonderful  yet  mysterious 
books?  Were  there  apocalyptic  writings  circulating  in 
the  New  Testament  times  that  are  not  in  the  Canon  of 
Scripture? 

9.  What  is  the  great  central  theme  of  the  Revelation 
that  shines  through  the  drama  and  the  symbols?  (Ecce 
venit!) 

10.  Take  the  vision  of  the  Christ  (1:  9-20)  and  try  to 
interpret  its  features  literally:  see  how  absolutely  neces- 
sary it  is  that  we  bear  in  mind  that  we  are  dealing  in 
symbols,  not  definite  objects, 

11.  Try  to  recollect  the  essential  thing  about  each  of 
the  subsequent  visions  (the  Church,  2-3;  the  Heaven, 
4-5;  the  Defeat  of  the  Forces  of  Evil  in  Heaven,  12-14; 
the  Marriage  of  the  Lamb,  19:  11-20:  6;  the  New  Jeru- 
salem, 21:  1-22:  5)  and  from  your  knowledge  of  the  Old 
Testament  try  to  interpret  the  apocalyptic  symbols. 

12.  Would  it  not  plunge  us  into  the  most  hideous  ma- 
terialism, such  as  taught  by  Mormonism  and  Russellism, 
if  we  were  to  take  these  symbols  at  their  literal  mean- 
ing? 

13.  Does  this  last  consideration  throw  any  light  upon 
the  teaching  concerning  our  Lord's  second  coming? 


THE    FOURFOLD    GOSPEL;    OR,    THE 
LIFE  AND  WORK  OF  CHRIST 
IN  THE  FLESH 


Passages  for  Daily  Readings 

Sunday. — The  Beginning  of  the  Good  Tidings.  Mark 
1:  1-39. 

Monday. — An  Unparalleled  Collection  of  Teachings. 
Matthew  5:  1-20;  7:  24-28. 

Tuesday.— -A  Gospel  of  Parables.  Matthew  13:  1-23, 
etc. 

Wednesday. — Human  Interest.     Luke  15:  1-31. 

Thursday. — A  Precious  Narrative  of  Easter  Even. 
Luke  24:  13-36. 

Friday. — The  Word  Becoming  Manifest.    John  1:  1-18. 

Saturday. — The  Manifestation  Complete.  John  17: 
1-26. 


Introduction 

Having  compassed  very  cursorily  the  epistolary  sec- 
tion of  our  New  Testament  and  seen  the  occasion 
and  general  purpose  of  the  twenty-two  hooks  of  let- 
ters, it  now  devolves  upon  us  to  glance  at  what,  for 
the  lack  of  a  better  term,  we  usually  call  the  historical 
books.  These  are  five  in  number,  made  up  of  the  four 
Gospels — Matthew,  Mark,  Luke,  and  John — and  the 
Acts.  For  our  present  study  we  shall  deal  with  the  four- 
fold gospel  story. 

The  field  is  so  large  and  these  books  are  so  important 
that  a  whole  study  could  profitably  be  devoted  to  each; 
but  our  time  and  space  are  so  limited  that  we  shall 
have  to  forego  the  discussion  of  many  phases  of  our 
theme  and  pin  our  attention  to  some  three  or  four  of 
the  fundamental  principles  underlying  the  whole  phe- 
nomenon of  gospel  composition  as  we  have  it  presented 
in  our  New  Testament  scriptures. 

Let  us  take  up  in  order,  then,  the  following  topics: 
The  Meaning  of  the  Word  '"Gospel"  as  Here  Applied, 
The  Function  of  a  Gospel,  The  Relation  of  Our  Four 


The  Fourfold  Gospel  159 

Gospels  to  Each  Other,  and  Some  Characterizations  and 
Analyses. 

The  Term  ''GospeV 

In  the  first  place,  we  are  met  by  the  outstanding  facil 
that  the  New  Testament  itself  knows  no  such  thing  as 
a  Gospel  in  the  sense  that  we  apply  it  in  our  present 
discussion.  In  the  life  of  the  early  apostolic  Church  the 
gospel  is  one  thing;  in  the  literature  of  the  subapostolic 
age  it  is  an  entirely  different  thing.  In  the  Epistles 
of  Paul,  for  example,  the  word  "gospel"  connotes  the 
revelation  of  God's  love  and  mercy  demonstrated  to 
men  in  the  death  and  resurrection  of  his  Son.  The 
epitome  of  this  message  of  redemption  is  given  by  him 
in  the  first  paragraph  of  the  fifteenth  chapter  of  his 
first  letter  to  the  Corinthians,  and  with  him  agree  all 
the  writers  of  the  New  Testament  who  broach  the  ques- 
tion. For  them,  one  and  all,  the  gospel  is  the  good 
news  of  salvation  achieved  by  Christ  and  attested  by 
his  own  resurrection,  ascension,  session,  and  the  descent 
of  the  Holy  Spirit.  They  know  nothing  of  such  a  term 
used  to  describe  the  earthly  life  of  Jesus.  And  yet  it 
is  perfectly  natural  that  such  a  use  would  arise.  The 
apostolic  gospel  consisted  fundamentally  of  the  joyful 
proclamation:  "The  Lord  has  risen,  and  hath  appeared." 
Apart  from  this  underlying  conviction  early  Christi- 
anity has  no  explanation,  has  not  even  any  existence. 
New  Testament  religion  is  grounded  in  the  life  of  a 
risen  Lord,  not  founded  on  the  teachings  of  a  departed 
and  deluded  religious  devotee.  And  yet  we  can  readily 
see  how  this  fundamental  apostolic  definition  of  the 
word  "gospel"  would  inevitably  expand;  and  it  is  in 
the  study  of  this  expansion  that  we  come  to  the  clearest 
conception  of  the  growth  of  our  gospel  literature.  For, 
granting  that  the  initial  proclamation  of  apostolic 
preaching  was  the  resurrection,  this  would  necessarily 
raise  the  question  of  the  death  of  Jesus;  and  this,  in 
turn,  would  spring  the  whole  question  of  Passion  Week 
We  may  confidently  affirm  that  the  first  content  of  apos- 


160         The  Story  of  the  New  Testament 

tolic  deliverance  was  occupied  with  the  announcement 
and  explication  of  what  Jesus  had  experienced  and  ex- 
plained during  the  last  week  of  his  public  ministry,  sup- 
plemented by  the  revelations  of  the  subsequent  forty 
days.  This  explains  a  palpable  phenomenon  of  our 
fourfold  gospel  story — namely,  the  multiplicity  of  de- 
tail, the  abundance  of  material,  and,  for  the  most  part, 
the  harmony  that  characterizes  the  passion  week  story 
as  detailed  by  each.  It  also  proves  beyond  the  shadow 
of  a  doubt  where  the  early  Church  placed  the  emphasis 
— namely,  that  the  early  Christian  consciousness  started 
with  the  conviction  of  the  risen  Lord  and  toorJced  tack- 
ward  through  the  tragedy  of  his  death  and  trial  into  his 
public  ministry  and,  finally,  into  the  incidents  connected 
with  his  childhood  and  infancy.  In  other  words,  their 
method  of  approach  was  exactly  the  opposite  of  ours. 
This  must  be  borne  in  mind  if  we  are  to  be  fair  to  them 
and  to  ourselves.  As  has  been  truly  said,  it  was  the  life 
in  Christ  that  made  the  early  Church  interested  in  the 
life  oj  Christ.  Hence  we  are  prepared  for  the  fact  that 
what  we  call  Gospels  are  by  no  means  biographies  of 
Jesus  in  our  modern  understanding  of  the  term.  There 
are  too  many  leaps  of  time  and  yawning  hiatuses  of 
incident  to  allow  them  this  title  unqualified.  The  one 
reason  that  we  have  never  had  an  entirely  satisfactory 
life  of  Jesus  is  that  the  materials  for  the  construction 
of  such  a  life  are  wanting  and  will  be  forever  wanting, 
because  from  the  standpoint  of  early  Christianity  this 
was  not  essential;  for  from  their  point  of  view  salvation 
is  not  secured  by  knowing  the  earthly  life  of  Jesus  or 
following  his  earthly  teaching,  but  by  becoming  partak- 
ers of  the  life  and  love  of  God,  which  the  death  and 
resurrection  of  Jesus  overwhelmingly  demonstrated  and 
which  the  coming  of  his  Spirit  made  consciously  their 
own. 

This  brings  us.  In  the  second  place,  to  give  brief  men- 
tion to 


The  Fourfold  Gospel  161 

The  Function  of  a  Gospel 

From  what  has  been  said  above  it  follows  that  this 
function  is  not  primarily  historical,  but  rather  didactic 
and  interpretative.  Not  the  bare  facts,  but  the  forces 
and  principles  involved  in  the  earthly  life  of  our  Lord, 
were  from  the  early  Church's  view  of  the  greatest  im- 
portance. Hence  the  presence  in  the  Gospel  narratives, 
even  the  most  straightforward,  of  what  is  usually  called 
a  tendency  element — that  is,  the  facts  are  so  selected 
and  reported  as  to  produce  certain  effects  upon  the  read- 
ers or  hearers.  For  the  primary  function  of  a  Gospel 
is  to  feed  the  faith  and  stimulate  the  life  of  believers. 
The  Epistles  are  largely  evangelical  and  controversial. 
They  appeal  to  the  unconverted  and  the  gainsayers, 
while  not  overlooking,  of  course,  the  instruction  of  the 
Church  in  the  constructive  principles  of  Christian  char- 
acter. The  Gospels,  on  the  other  hand,  are  mainly  edu- 
cational and  seek  to  acquaint  the  believers  with  the 
ever-developing  fund  of  incident  both  of  word  and  work 
that  characterized  the  earthly  life  of  their  risen  Lord. 
This  record  naturally  falls  into  two  grand  hemispheres, 
both  together  making  up  the  total  sphere  of  apostolic 
consciousness  on  the  matter  of  the  revelation  that  was 
in  Christ.  For  these  apostles  knew  him  first  of  all  in 
the  days  of  his  flesh,  and  then  they  knew  him  in  the 
power  and  presence  of  the  Spirit.  The  first  continent 
of  their  contact  with  him  is  explored  for  us  in  the  pages 
of  the  fourfold  gospel  story.  The  second  is  that  opened 
up  by  the  book  called  by  later  ages  the  Acts  of  the 
Apostles,  but  regarded  by  the  man  that  penned  its 
thrilling  paragraphs  as  simply  the  continuation  of  what 
Jesus  hegan  to  do  and  to  teach  up  to  the  time  of  his 
ascension  (Acts  1:  2).  In  other  words,  the  life  and 
work  of  Jesus  in  the  days  of  his  flesh  have  as  their 
inevitable  complement  and  necessary  sequel  the  life  and 
work  of  Jesus  in  the  full  tide  of  his  spiritual  presence. 
We  shall  reserve  this  subject  for  our  concluding  study^ 
giving  our  attention  now  to  the  life  and  work  of  Jesus 
11 


11)2         The  Story  of  tM  New  Testament 

in  the  days  of  his  flesh  as  represented  to  us  in  the  four- 
fold gospel  story  which  has  ,ccme  down  to  us  under 
that  noble  quarternion,  Matthew,  Mark,  Luke,  and  John. 

The  Relation  of  the  Four  Gosi^els  to  Each  Other 

To  begin  with,  the  relations  subsisting  between  these 
four  representations  of  the  life  and  work  of  our  Lord 
constitute  a  unique  phenomenon  in  literature.  In  the 
first  place,  we  have  the  obvious  differences  between  the 
Johannine  account  and  that  of  the  other  three.  Into 
the  vexed  question  of  this  relationship  we  cannot  go 
now.  Sufficient  it  is  to  recognize  broadly  the  difference 
in  the  time,  place,  manner,  matter,  and  general  attitude 
of  our  Lord's  ministry  as  set  forth  in  our  fourth  Gospel 
from  what  we  have  in  the  synoptics;  sufficient  also  to 
recall  that  whether  ice  in  our  day  can  reconcile  these 
differences  or  not,  the  early  CMirch  did,  for  the  men 
of  that  day  had  no  difficulty  in  incorporating  into  their 
comprehensive  interpretation  of  Christ  and  his  ministry 
such  apparently  divergent  data.  Interesting  as  this 
phase  of  the  subject  is,  we  cannot  go  further;  but  what 
we  have  said  and  what  any  one  can  see  by  reading  the 
Gospels  simply  corroborates  the  statement  of  the  writ- 
ers themselves  that  they  do  not  aim  at  a  complete  ar- 
rangement of  the  facts,  that  their  method  is  selective, 
and  that  their  purpose  is  educative  and  religious,  not 
primarily  historical  and  scientific. 

A  second  phase  of  this  relationship  we  can  only 
glance  at,  and  that  is  the  interrelationship  of  the  syn- 
optics— Matthew,  Mark,  and  Luke — themselves.  This  is 
so  far  one  of  the  standing  puzzles  of  the  literary  criti- 
cism of  the  New  Testament.  "So  alike,"  we  exclaim 
as  we  read  them  in  certain  sections,  "as  to  be  evidently 
transcripts  of  each  other  or  of  a  common  archetype!" 
"So  unlike,"  we  avow  as  we  scan  other  portions,  "as 
evidently  to  demonstrate  absolutely  divergent  sources!" 
And  our  conceptions  of  how  the  conundrum  is  to  be 
p solved  are  not  clarified  much  by  the  presence  of  a  more 
or  less  common  body  of  material  that  bears  evident  trace 


Tlie  Fourfold  Gospel  163 

of  conscious  deviation  from  what  the  compiler  had  he- 
fore  him!  Into  the  intricacies  of  these  interrelations 
only  expert  explorers  dare  enter.  The  tyro  would  soon 
be  hopelessly  lost  in  the  inextricable  maze  of  corre- 
spondences, contradictions,  variations,  duplications,  sub- 
stitutions, and  transmutations  any  thoroughgoing  grap- 
pling of  the  synoptic  problem  involves. 

Fortunately  we  need  not  plunge  into  the  wilderness 
itself;  we  can  stand  on  its  edge  and  see  one  or  two 
general  principles  quite  clearly.  One  of  these  Is  that 
our  present  second  Gospel  (Mark)  is  by  all  odds  the 
oldest  form  in-  which  the  earthly  life  of  our  Lord  has 
been  transmitted  to  us.  This  is  logical  from  the  point 
previously  stated,  that  the  incidents  centering  about  the 
week  of  passion  constituted  the  staple  of  early  apostolic 
preaching. 

We  can  hardly  believe  that  much  time  would  elapse 
before  the  question  would  be  sprung  as  to  what  was  the 
reason  for  the  action  of  the  authorities  in  putting  Je- 
sus to  trial  and  subsequently  to  death.  The  answer 
would  be  that  it  was  the  outcome  of  a  public  ministry 
on  his  part  that  caught  the  eye  and  ear  of  the  people 
and  so  led  to  the  endangering  of  the  influence  Qf  the 
religious  and  political  leaders  of  the  day.  So  that  it  is 
hardly  conceivable  that  any  effort  to  explain  at  all  the 
last  week  of  Jesus' s  life  would  stop  short  of  the  terminus 
a  quo  supplied  by  the  inauguration  of  the  public  min- 
istry. Now,  this  is  just  what  Mark's  Gospel  does.  It 
seizes  as  the  "beginning  of  the  Gospel"  the  inauguration 
of  the  life  work  of  Jesus  by  his  baptism  at  the  hands 
of  John,  the  prophet  of  the  desert,  and  with  a  master 
hand  gives  in  succession  a  series  of  pen  sketches — a 
sort  of  moving  picture  style — which  for  vividness  and 
dramatic  realism  have  scarcely  any  parallel  in  litera- 
ture, the  salient  incidents  and  deeds  in  the  life  of  Jesus 
that  by  reason  of  their  inherent  momentum  hurl  him 
forward  to  the  catastrophe  of  Calvary  and  the  glory  of 
the  Easter  morn. 

A  second  generally  accepted  result  of  the  investiga- 


164         The  Story  of  the  New  Testament 

tion  of  the  relation  of  our  first  three  Gospels  is  the  fact 
that  there  is  discoverable  the  presence  of  a  document 
underlying  Matthew  and  Luke  which  was  used  by  these 
Gospels  along  with  the  data  supplied  by  Mark's  Gospel. 
This  document,  for  the  most  part,  was  made  up  of  the 
sayings  of  Jesus,  and  by  various  scholars  has  been  more 
or  less  reproduced  from  the  phenomena  presented.  This 
document  is  usually  referred  to  as  Q,  a  symbolical  ab- 
breviation for  the  German  word  Quelle,  which  means 
"sources."  This,  too,  is  just  what  we  should  expect. 
For  it  is  in  the  highest  degree  probable  that  going 
along  with  a  tradition  that  would  detail  the  works  of 
Jesus  there  should  be  one  that  would  preserve  more  or 
less  of  his  words;  and  it  is  the  later  compilation  and  codi- 
fication of  these  traditions  that  constitutes  the  glory  of 
the  evangelistic  authors  as  well  as  explains  the  presence 
of  their  puzzling  problem.  Whether  it  contains  the  po- 
tencies of  a  solution,  however,  we  must  wait  for  future 
investigators  to  assert.  Certainly  for  the  present  it  is 
true  to  say  that,  so  far  as  the  phenomena  are  presented, 
the  few  pages  of  the  Synoptic  Gospels  constitute  a  liter- 
ary problem  that  has  baffled  and  is  baffling  the  most 
learned  ingenious  devices  of  critical  acumen.  After  all, 
the  supreme  reason  may  possibly  be  that  herein  is  a  sort 
of  overruling  providence  to  call  to  our  minds  indirectly 
at  least  the  great  truth  for  which  Christianity  primarily 
stands:  "The  letter  killeth;  it  is  the  Spirit  that  makes 
alive," 

So  we  may  say  that  while  the  gospel  made  the  Church, 
the  Church  made  the  Gospels.  And  the  ever-enlarging 
scope  of  gospel  tradition  is  simply  the  effort  of  the 
Church  to  so  present  the  life  and  work  of  Jesus  as  to 
answer  the  demands  of  her  ever-enlarging  area  of  oc- 
cupation. So  the  Gospels  are  monuments  to  the  mis- 
sionary zeal  and  energy  of  the  early  Church — not  sim- 
ply in  a  geographical,  but  in  a  social  and  philosopMcal 
sense  as  well.  The  command  "Go  ye  into  every  world" 
was  interpreted  by  apostolic  genius  not  only  horizontal- 
ly, but  also  perpendicularly;  not  only  physical  territory. 


The  Fourfold  Gospel  165 

but  metaphysical  too  was  the  proper  domain  on  which 
to  wage  a  conquest  for  Christ.  Hence  we  see  that  while 
Mark's  Gospel  is  directed  to  the  Church  gathered  from 
the  Roman  world,  it  has  in  it  that  principle  in  the  life 
of  Jesus  which  would  appeal  most  persuasively  to  the 
Roman  type  of  mind — namely,  the  dynamic  element. 
Jesus  is  set  forth  as  a  doer  of  deeds,  chiefly  those  deeds 
that  are  especially  compelling  in  arresting  the  crass 
materialism  of  Roman  thought  and  challenging  it  to  the 
contemplation  of  a  world  of  spiritual  forces  which  the 
vulgar  epicurean  philosophy  of  the  hour  had  so  sadly 
and  completely  obscured.  Again,  while  we  may  fairly 
accord  truth  to  the  tradition  that  Matthew  is  a  Gospel 
called  forth  by  the  exigencies  of  the  success  of  early 
Christianity  among  the  Jews,  still  we  must  not  think 
that  this  ends  the  matter.  We  may  confidently  assert 
that  there  are  principles  in  this  presentation  of  the  life 
and  work  of  Jesus  that  have  as  their  purpose  to  show 
how  it  is  possible  for  one  to  graduate  out  of  the  school 
0%  Moses  into  the  school  of  Christ.  Prominently  in  this 
Gospel  is  the  Christian  principle  presented  as  not  in- 
imical to  but  complementary  of  Judaism.  In  its  pages 
Jesus  comes  not  to  destroy,  but  to  fulfill;  his  revelation 
is  not  a  rival,  but  rather  the  natural  fruitage  of  the 
Jewish  Messianic  hope  in  its  true  and  spiritual  signifi- 
cance. Hence  Jesus  is  a  Son  of  Abraham;  he  is  born 
King  of  the  Jews.  The  Old  Testament  is  drawn  on  for 
as  much  as  twice  the  amount  found  in  Mark  or  Luke, 
and  in  its  concluding  chapters  Jesus  enters  the  capital 
city  as  a  King  and  is  put  to  death  by  reason  of  his 
claim  to  royal  prerogatives. 

In  the  third  place,  Luke's  Gospel,  while  called  forth 
by  the  exigencies  of  successful  missionary  propaganda 
In  the  Graeco-Roman  world,  since  its  author  is  a  physi- 
cian— one  who  runs  the  entire  gamut  of  the  social  scale 
in  his  contact  with  humanity — and  a  companion  of 
Paul,  the  herald  of  a  universal  gospel,  it  was  impossible 
for  such  a  writer  in  his  handling  of  what  came  to  him 
through  the  ordinary  channels  of  historical  investiga- 


1(56         The  Story  of  the  New  Testament 

tion  (see  the  illuminating  confessions  of  the  why,  the 
how,  and  the  what  of  the  writing  in  Luke  1:  1-4)  not 
to  discover  principles  overlooked  by  various  others 
whose  versions  palpably  did  not  entirely  suit  the  knowl- 
edge he  had,  else  he  would  simply  have  sent  what  he 
had  gathered  to  Theophilus,  and  the  world  would  have 
been  robbed  of  "the  most  beautiful  book  in  all  litera- 
ture." How  natural  that  a  physician  should  have  given 
us  this  most  humanitarian  interpretation  of  the  life  and 
work  of  Jesus!  How  quick  his  eye  to  detect  and  his 
hand  to  depict  the  hygienic  influence  of  this  great  Per- 
son as  he  walks  in  and  out  among  men  and  women  of 
the  most  abandoned  type — publicans,  sinners,  harlots — 
and  leaves  constantly  the  aroma  of  virtue  and  the  sav- 
ing strength  of  incarnate  goodness  to  bless  and  purify 
with  the  glad  stream  of  the  water  of  life  earth's  most 
stagnant  and  putrid  pools!  What  from  all  this  is  the 
inevitable  deduction  from  the  phenomena  of  Gospel 
construction?  Nothing  but  the  fundamental  fact  that 
faces  us  on  every  page  of  the  epistolary  portion  of  our 
New  Testament — namely,  that  Christ  is  all-efficient  and 
all-sufficient.  When  we  come  to  the  fourth  Gospel,  this 
principle  reaches  its  climax  so  far  as  utterance  in  human 
language  can  be  given  to  it.  Doubtless  one  of  the  very 
latest  proclamations  of  the  apostolic  Church,  it  has  a 
full  half  or  three-quarters  of  a  century  of  conquest  to 
look  back  upon.  And  though  it  has  to  face  one  of  the 
most  insidious  and  subtle  sets  of  falsities  the  truth  has 
ever  met,  .as  it  combats  the  heresies  incident  to  the 
Church's  occupation  of  Asia  Minor,  it  advances  without 
a  tremor,  and  in  the  interpretation  it  gives  of  the  life 
and  work  of  Jesus  upon  earth  it  shows  him  clearly  as 
Conqueror  in  the  realm  of  self,  of  sin,  of  the  world,  and 
of  death;  and  therefore  the  author  is  able  to  connect 
the  Christian  principle  vitally  with  the  philosophic  out- 
look of  the  time  and  to  point  the  wandering  minds  of 
men  to  Him  who  is  the  Truth,  the  Life,  and  the  Way 
to  God. 

From  this  general  characterization  we  now  turn  to 


The  Fourfold  Gospel  KJT 

our  final  task  of  setting  forth  brief  analyses  of  the  four 
Gospels. 

The  Gospel  According  to  Mark 

W«  shall  begin  with  the  earliest  and  shortest,  that 
which  has  come  down  to  us  associated  with  the  name 
of  Mark.  This  Mark  is,  of  course,  John  Mark,  associaled 
in  the  Acts  with  Paul  and  Barnabas  in  their  early  mis- 
sionary operations.  Later  he  seems  to  have  attached 
himself  to  Peter,  and  it  is  in  connection  with  this  latter 
apostle  that  the  tradition  of  the  early  ages  preserves 
for  us  a  most  interesting  bit  of  information.  For  Pa- 
pias,  Irenaeus,  Tertullian,  Clement  of  Alexandria,  Origen, 
and  Jerome  all  agree,  at  least  in  part,  in  ascribing  this 
Gospel  to  Mark,  influenced  ^nore  or  less  by  Peter.  Pa- 
pias  (who,  by  the  way,  is  the  original  Mrs.  Grundy  in 
all  this  matter  of  Gospel  gossip)  has  this  to  say  on 
the  authority  of  one  he  calls  "the  elder":  "Mark,  hav- 
ing become  Peter's  interpreter,  wrote  down  accurately 
what  things  he  remembered  (not,  however,  in  order)  of 
what  had  been  spoken  or  done  by  Christ.  For  he 
neither  heard  the  Lord,  nor  did  he  follow  him."  Noth- 
ing that  later  research  has  discovered  has  been  able  to 
shake  off  the  impression  of  the  early  tradition  that  in 
some  way  or  other  the  hand  and  the  eye  and  the  ear 
of  Peter  have  to  be  reckoned  with  when  we  are  reading 
the  Gospel  according  to  Mark.  In  fact,  to  get  the  best 
outline  for  our  second  Gospel  we  need  only  to  refer  to 
one  of  Peter's  speeches  (Acts  10:  38),  for  here  we  have 
Mark  in  epitome.  And  to  see  the  full  significance  of 
some  of  its  salient  sections  we  have  to  picture  our- 
selves looking  over  Peter's  shoulders  and  through  Peter's 
eyes. 

Again,  the  second  Gospel  is  just  such  a  representation 
of  the  life  and  work  of  Jesus  as  would  emanate  from 
such  a  type  of  mind  as  that  of  Simon  Peter.  It  is  vivid, 
thoroughly  objective,  rapid  in  its  movement,  and  leaves 
one  always  with  an  appetite  for  something  more  of  the 
marvelous  life  it  has  so  strikingly  portrayed.    Even  the 


168         The  Story  of  the  New  Testament 

abrupt  break-off  at  the  close  (16:  8),  leaving  us  "in  the 
air,"  is  thoroughly  in  keeping  with  many  a  Petrine  per- 
formance. This  is  not  to  say,  however,  that  Mark  is 
only  a  phonograph  mechanically  reproducing  what  was 
dictated.  On  the  contrary,  what  order  is  in  this  writing 
—and  there  is  a  good  deal,  both  logical  and  chronolog- 
ical, despite  the  harsh  verdict  of  Papias — is,  we  ween, 
due  to  Mark  himself.  All  the  tradition  affirms  that  we 
are  interested  in  maintaining  is  that  the  Gospel  as  we 
have  it  was  written  by  Mark,  based  upon  the  reminis- 
cences delivered  by  Peter.  This  in  itself  is  sufficient 
and  is  another  illustration  of  the  primacy  of  the  fisher- 
man-apostle. Wonderful  fulfillment  of  the  word  of  Je- 
sus, ''Thou  hast  the  keys" — the  key  that  opened  the  door 
to  the  Christian  community  on  the  day  of  Pentecost,  the 
key  that  opened  the  door  to  the  Gentile  world  in  the 
conversion  of  Cornelius,  and  now  the  key  that  opened 
the  door  to  the  priceless  treasures  wrapped  up  in  the 
words  and  works  of  Jesus! 

The  construction  of  Mark's  Gospel  is  very  simple.  A 
brief  introduction  of  thirteen  verses  sets  graphically 
before  the  reader  the  threefold  preparation  of  Jesus  for 
his  public  ministry.  This  preparation  is  national  (the 
ministry  of  John  the  Baptist),  official  (the  baptism  of 
Jesus),  and  personal  (the  temptation).  The  narrative 
portion  of  the  Gospel  is  devoted  to  a  rapid  analysis  of 
Jesus's  threefold  field  of  operation:  the  Galilean  minis- 
try, the  Perean,  and  the  Judean.  The  description  of  the 
Galilean  ministry,  which  is  by  far  the  larger  section, 
begins  at  chapter  one,  verse  fourteen,  and  continiies 
through  the  ninth  chapter.  This  period  of  two  or  more 
years  is  again  distributed  into  two  sections:  the  Eastern 
Galilean  ministry,  centering  around  Capernaum  (1:  14- 
7:  23),  and  the  northern  circuit,  round  about  Tyre  and 
Sidon  (7:  24-9:  50).  The  Perean  ministry  is  simply  a 
narrow  line  connecting  the  two  broad  areas  of  Galilean 
and  Judean  activity;  for  Mark  is  satisfied  to  pass  over 
in  a  score  and  a  half  verses  what  Matthew  doubles  in 
volume  and  Luke  expands  a  dozenfold   (Mark  10:  1-31). 


The  Fourfold  Gospel  169 

It  is  the  Judean  ministry  that  is  important,  however, 
both  to  Peter  and  to  Mark,  who  in  the  early  days  of  the 
Church's  life  lived  in  Jerusalem  (Acts  12:  12).  Here  the 
incidents  are  detailed  day  by  day;  and  though  the  time  is 
but  a  few  days,  over  one-third  of  the  space  of  the  whole 
writing  is  devoted  to  this  ministry.  And  when  we  come 
to  Passion  Week  itself  we  find  that  in  this  shortest 
Gospel,  while  the  author  has  only  twenty-two  pages  for 
the  two  years  or  more  of  the  Galilean  ministry,  he  has 
fourteen  pages  for  the  incidents  of  the  last  week.  This 
is  a  disproportion  of  something  like  seventy  to  one  and 
shows  clearly  where  the  center  of  gravity  of  the  gospel 
story  lies  so  far  as  the  instinct  of  the  early  Church  is 
concerned.  It  also  testifies  to  the  validity  of  our  con- 
tention that  in  the  construction  of  its  evangelistic  tradi- 
tions the  apostolic  age  began  at  the  open  grave  and 
worked  'backward.  The  first  cycle  of  this  working  back- 
ward is  represented  by  the  Marcan  cycle  and  stopped 
with  the  beginning  of  the  public  ministry. 

The  Gospels  According  to  Matthew  and  Luke 

But  the  logic  of  this  initial  procedure  would  inevitably 
lead  to  the  effort  when  occasion  arose  to  penetrate  be- 
yond and  back  of  the  public  ministry  and  enter  the 
private  life  of  preparation  and  even  peer  with  holy  rev- 
erence into  the  sacred  scenes  of  childhood  and  infancy 
itself.  This  necessity  arose  in  the  second  generation 
of  the  Church's  life,  when  children  were  the  best  herit- 
age of  Christian  believers,  and  to  the  presence  of  these 
we  owe  those  efforts  which  were  finally  crowned  with 
success  in  gathering  and  crystallizing  such  beautifully 
expressed  and  such  heart-thrilling  traditions  as  we  read 
in  the  introductory  chapters  of  our  first  and  third  Gos- 
pels. Aside  from  the  presence  of  these  birth  and  child- 
hood traditions,  the  Matthean  apd  Lucan  memoirs  do 
not  swerve  from  the  line  of  procedure  laid  down  by  the 
Marcan  cycle.  The  largest  addition  is  in  the  matter 
of  discourses  and  the  fuller  details  embodied  in  the 
Perean  history.    This  discourse  material  Is  largely  what 


170         The  Story  of  the  New  Testament 

Matthew  and  Luke  got  from  Q,  and  their  personal  con- 
tribution is  seen  largely  in  the  matter  of  arrangement. 
Here  Luke  would  seem  to  be  truer  to  the  real  facts  in 
the  case  not  only  from  his  avowed  purpose  as  indicated 
in  his  opening  paragraph,  but  also  from  the  verdict  of 
the  facts  themselves.  On  the  other  hand,  Matthew's 
Gospel  bears  all  the  marks  of  having  been  compiled  on 
a  scheme  that  would  lend  itself  most  readily  to  memoriz- 
ing. This  is  one  of  the  Judaistic  elements  it  contains, 
and  it  may  be  regarded  as  an  illustration  of  how  the 
early  Church  carried  over  the  methods  of  Judaism  itself 
in  its  effort  to  instruct  its  catechumens  in  the  faith- 
ful reproduction  of  its  holy  traditions.  This  accounts, 
doubtless,  for  the  topical  arrangement  of  this  writing. 
Discourses,  parables,  and  deeds  are  grouped,  not  accord- 
ing so  much  to  chronological  order,  but  according  to 
logical  sequence  and  in  such  fashion  as  to  facilitate 
memoriter  reproduction.  This  can  be  readily  seen,  say 
from  a  comparison  of  what  is  known  as  the  Sermon 
on  the  Mount  as  given  in  Matthew  and  the  same  as  re- 
ported by  Luke.  It  is  nearly  all  in  the  latter,  but  is 
scattered  here  and  there.  In  Matthew,  however,  it  is 
collected  and  presented  as  a  sort  of  Messianic  manifesto. 
Other  illustrations  of  this  principle  will  readily  occur 
to  the  attentive  reader. 

The  Gospel  According  to  John 

And  one  other  thing  will  doubtless  occur,  and  that  is 
that  as  we  read  our  Gospels  in  the  order  Mark,  Matthew, 
Luke,  and  John  we  shall  be  impressed  with  an  ever- 
increasing  ratio  of  personal  interpretation  on  the  part 
of  the  author,  so  that  when  we  come  to  the  final  expres- 
sion of  the  consciousness  of  the  apostolic  Church  in  its 
registration  of  the  life  and  work  of  the  Master — that 
of  John — it  is  oftentimes  difficult  to  discover  where  the 
Master  ends  and  the  disciple  begins,  so  marvelous  is  the 
merging  of  the  one  into  the  other. 

The  one  reason  that  accounts  most  nearly  for  all  the 
facts  in  the  case  is  probably  this:    The  fourth  Gospel 


The  Fourfold  Gospel  171 


sets  before  itself  most  consciously  of  all  the  task  of 
interpreting,  liot  so  much  the  work  or  the  words  of  Je- 
sus, but  Jesus  himself.  The  early  Church  could  not 
fail  of  this  as  its  ultimate  goal  in  gospel  construction. 
If  what  Jesus  did  was  of  such  supreme  moment  as  to 
merit  a  Mark,  if  what  Jesus  said  was  important  enough 
to  command  the  skill  of  a  Matthean  compiler  and  the 
genius  of  a  Luke,  surely  who  he  ivas  and  is  is  a  subject 
of  transcendent  worth.  For  back  of  the  work,  however 
mighty,  is  a  Worker  more  mighty  still,  and  back  of  the 
word,  however  true,  is  a  Speaker  who  is  the  Truth;  and 
the  Christian  consciousness  in  its  inevitable  movement 
is  never  satisfied  until  it  penetrates  all  the  outer  and 
phenomenal  expression  and  enters  with  holy  boldness 
into  the  sacred  precincts  of  the  Person  who  wrought  so 
powerfully  and  taught  so  convincingly. 

Hence  it  is  not  strange  that  the  climax  of  the  Church's 
effort  in  this  direction  should  register  itself  in  a  Gospel 
that  gives  itself  unstintedly  to  the  revelation  of  the  per- 
son of  Jesus  and  the  inevitable  reactions  set  up  by  other 
persons  as  he  passes  in  and  out  among  them.  By  look- 
ing at  the  last  verse  of  the  twentieth  chapter  we  see 
that  the  author  had  a  clearly  defined  purpose.  This,  as 
he  tells  us,  was  twofold:  First,  he  writes  that  his  read- 
ers may  believe  two  things  about  Jesus,  his  Messiahship 
and  his  Sonship;  and,  secondly,  he  writes  that  by  believ- 
ing these  two  things  concerning  Jesus  they  may  be- 
come partakers  of  life  in  his  name  (John  20:  31). 

On  John's  own  statement,  then,  this  writing  is  a  book 
of  Christian  evidences.  It  divides  itself  naturally  into 
a  prologue  (1:  1-18),  a  narrative  section  (1:  19-20:  31), 
and  an  epilogue  (21:  1-23),  The  concluding  statement 
is  in  all  probability  a  sort  of  an  affidavit  appended  by 
some  circle  of  Christians  affirming  their  attestation  of 
the  truth  of  the  Gospel;  and  considering  its  wide  varia- 
tions from  the  other  accounts,  it  may  well  be  granted 
that  such  a  commendation  was  necessary  to  Churches 
that  had,  say,  any  one  of  the  synoptics. 

The  prologue   is   indeed  the   Gospel   in  epitome.     Its 


172         The  Story  of  the  New  Testament 

key  verse  is  verse  eleven.  This  is  the  movement  of  the 
entire  narrative  portion.  "He  came  unto  his  own,  and 
his  own  received  him  not;  but  as  many  as  received  him, 
to  them  gave  he  the  right  to  become  the  children  of 
God." 

The  narrative  portion,  extending  from  1:  19  through 
the  twentieth  chapter,  divides  at  the  end  of  chapter 
twelve.  Here  Jesus  is  coming  to  his  own,  and  his  own 
are  not  receiving  him.  His  nation,  his  age,  his  people 
all  reject  more  or  less,  and  the  sequel  to  their  rejection 
is  the  solemn  judgment  delivered  in  the  last  verses  of  the 
twelfth  chapter  (12:  44-50).  With  the  thirteenth  chap- 
ter begins  the  revelation  of  Jesus  to  his  own  who  re- 
ceived him.  From  this  foot-washing  scene  on  through 
the  high-priestly  prayer  of  our  Lord  we  are  in  the  holy 
of  holies  of  our  New  Testament.  Here  it  is  that  the 
real  Shekinah  glows  and  burns.  God  appears  most  fully 
in  terms  of  human  life,  and  the  real  heart  of  Jesus  Is 
most  minutely  disclosed  to  the  gaze  of  him  who  leaned 
most  closely  on  the  Master's  breast  ^nd  learned  most 
completely  the  Spirit  of  our  Lord. 

From  this  brief  analysis  it  will  be  seen  that  in  the 
light  of  the  author's  purpose  it  is  perfectly  natural  that 
the  emphasis  in  the  first  part  of  the  Gospel  should  be 
on  belief,  and  in  the  second  part  it  should  be  on  life. 
Hence  the  first  twelve  chapters  are  occupied  largely 
with  the  citation  of  testimony  and  the  registration  of 
successive  stages  of  belief  on  the  part  of  those  who 
come  in  contact  with  Jesus  as  he  seeks  to  reveal  him- 
self to  the  world.  This  testimony  begins  with  that  of 
John  the  Baptist  (1:  19),  is  carried  on  by  his  disciples 
(1:  35),  and  culminates  in  its  incipient  stage  with  the 
miracle  at  Cana  (2:  11).  The  work  of  Jesus  is  then 
described  as  it  develops  in  Judea  (2:  13-3:  36),  Samaria 
(4:  1-42),  and  Galilee  (4:  43-54). 

Beginning  with  chapter  five,  there  is  described  the 
inevitable  conflict  which  this  self-revelation  of  Jesus  to 
the  world  precipitated.  The  storm  centers  of  this  con- 
flict shift  from  Jerusalem  in  the  fifth  chapter  to  Galilee 


The  Fourfold  Gospel  173 

in  the  sixth,  and  thence  again  to  Jerusalem  in  the  sev- 
enth (7:  10),  where  it  still  continues  through  the  eighth 
and  ninth  chapters  and  through  the  thirty-ninth  verse 
of  the  tenth  chapter,  where  the  hatred  against  him  is  so 
great  that  he  is  forced  into  retirement  beyond  Jordan 
and,  touching  the  springs  of  his  early  enthusiasm  amid 
the  scenes  made  ever  memorable  by  his  primal  inaugura- 
tion at  the  hands  of  John  the  Baptist  (10:  40-42),  Christ 
gathers  courage  for  the  coming  catastrophe,  and  is  soon 
found  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  capital  city  as  he 
raises  Lazarus  from  the  dead  (chapter  11).  In  chapter 
twelve  he  attends  a  supper  in  his  honor  at  Bethany,  re- 
ceives with  glad  gratitude  the  loving  deed  of  Mary  as  a 
preparation  for  his  burial,  on  the  morrow  enters  Jerusa- 
lem as  its  Messianic  King,  brings  to  a  head  the  fury  of 
his  foes  that  has  been  so  long  fomenting,  receives  with 
devout  joy  the  question  of  the  Greeks,  makes  his  final 
appeal  to  his  own  unbelieving  people,  and  then  "de- 
parted and  hid  himself  from  them"  (12:  36). 

So  this  self-revelation  of  Jesus  to  the  world  ends  with 
a  self-concealment  on  his  part  by  reason  of  the  fact  that 
they  "received  him  not." 

But  this  is  only  half  the  story  John  has  to  tell,  and 
not  the  larger  half,  either.  From  chapter  thirteen  be- 
gins the  self-revelation  of  Jesus  to  his  own  that  re- 
ceived him.  This  portion  of  the  Gospel  emphasizes  the 
idea  of  life,  and  its  keynote  is  ahide,  and  from  now  on 
we  have  the  most  spiritually  vital  section  of  our  whole 
New  Testament.  From  now  on  Jesus  is  the  Way,  the 
Truth,  the  Life;  and  it  is  by  walking  in  the  way  he 
discloses,  living  the  truth  he  embodies,  and  sharing  in 
the  life  that  he  possesses  that  men  come  to  know  and 
serve  and  love  the  Father. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  go  into  further  detail.  SufRcien*^. 
has  been  suggested  for  the  individual  student  to  go 
through  the  Gospel  with  great  profit  to  his  own  spir- 
itual growth  and  with  a  better  understanding  of  its 
primal  purpose  and  how  the  writer  achieved  it.  In  con- 
clusion   let   us    remind   ourselves    of   the   two    poles    of 


174  The  Story  of  the  New  Testament 

faith  incorporated  in  the  writer's  scheme  of  witnesses 
to  the  Messiahship  and  Sonship  of  Jesus — the  one  that 
superficial  sort  possessed  by  a  Nathanael,  a  man  so  in- 
nocent as  never  to  have  committed  the  crime  of  having 
an  idea  of  his  own,  but  who  takes  everything  that 
heredity  or  environment  flings  at  him  with  such  an 
eager  readiness  as  to  call  forth  a  rebuke  from  Jesus  lest 
he  spend  all  his  capital  at  once  and  have  nothing  for 
future  drafts  upon  it  (1:  45-51);  and  that  deep,  agoniz- 
ing, self-immolating  and  self-dedicating,  abiding  trust 
of  a  Thomas  which  registers  itself  in  the  cry  of  adoring 
love:  "My  Lord  and  my  God!" 

John  is  willing  to  rest  his  case  when  the  self-revela- 
tion of  Jesus  wrings  from  such  a  doubter  such  a  testi- 
mony; and  surely  as  we  read  this  and  a  hundred  other 
instances  in  this  Gospel  which  evince  such  wonderful 
spiritual  insight  both  as  regards  men  and  women  in 
general  and  Jesus  in  particular  we  have  no  wonder  that 
the  early  Church  was  wont  to  see  in  John  the  eagle  of 
the  evangelists  and  that  the  later  Church  should  have 
celebrated  his  praise  in  the  lines  attributed  to  Adam  of 
St.  Victor: 

He  flies,  a  bird  without  a  goal, 
Where  neither  priest  nor  prophet  soul 

Did  mount  so  high; 
Things*  to  come  and  things  completed, 
Ne'er  did  see  so  much  secreted 

Purer  man  with  purer  eye. 


Thought  Questions 

1.  Give  the  earliest  meaning  of  the  term  *'gospel"  (€. 
(/.,  1  Cor.  15:  1-8)  and  explain  its  bearing  upon  the  later 
use  of  the  name  for  the  narrative  of  the  life  and  the  re- 
port of  the  teachings  of  the  Son  of  Man. 

2.  Was  the  writing  of  a  biography  of  Jesus  or  the 
production  of  certain  effects  upon  the  readers  the  chief 
object  of  the  writing  of  a  Gospel;  and  to  what  extent 
did  deliberate  purpose  determine  the  selection  of  the 
material  that  went  into  the  Gospels?     ^^      ^     ,        ^ 

3.  Into  what  two  classes  do  you  divide  the  four  Gos- 
pels, and  what  is  your  reason  for  this  classification? 


The  Fourfold  Gospel  175 

4.  What  two  considerations  point  indisputably  to  the 
priority  of  the  Gospel  according  to  Mark?  (That  Mark 
explains  the  death  of  Jesus  by  giving  an  account  of  his 
ministry;  and  that  both  Matthew  and  Luke  give  evidence 
of  the  use  of  both  an  earlier  collection  of  the  sayings  of 
Jesus  and  the  material  in  Mark.) 

5.  What  principle  of  compilation  does  Matthew  fol- 
low; and  how  is  he  influenced  in  his  selection  of  ma- 
terials? 

6.  What  is  distinctive  of  Luke  (1)  in  the  selection  of 
materials  and  (2)  in  arrangement  of  his  narrative? 

7.  In  what  way  does  the  use  of  material  concerning 
the  infancy  and  childhood  of  Jesus  support  the  view 
that  the  Gospels  according  to  Matthew  and  Luke  were 
late  in  appearing — later  than  the  Pauline  missionary 
journeys  and  the  letters  that  these  journeys  called 
forth? 

8.  From  what  characteristics  of  the  Synoptics  and  of 
John  does  the  problem  of  the  Gospel  according  to  John 
arise? 

9.  How  do  you  account  for  the  fact  that  the  early 
Church  found  no  difficulty  in  reconciling  the  synoptic 
and  the  Johannine  portraits  of  the  Christ,  while  modern 
Christian  scholars  find  here  a  real  problem? 

10.  Does  the  fact  that  John  is  the  most  personal  of 
the  Gospel  writers  both  account  for  certain  peculiarities 
in  his  book  and  indicate  that  it  was  written  long  after 
the  Synoptics? 

11.  What  is  the  twofold  purpose  of  the  Gospel  accord- 
ing to  John;  and  how  is  that  purpose  served  by  the  se- 
lection and  arrangement  of  his  material? 


XL  THE  LIFE  AND  WORK   OF   JESUS  IN 
THE  SPIRIT 


Passages  for  Daily  Readings 

Sunday. — The  Events  That  Link  the  Days  of  the  Son 
of  Man  with  the  Ministry  of  the  Spirit.  Acts  1:  1-14; 
2:  1-4,  22-36. 

Monday. — The  First  Christian  Brotherhood.  Acts  2: 
37-47;  4:  32-5:  6. 

Tuesday.—The  Ministry  of  Jesus  Continued  in  the 
Church.    Acts  3:  1-10;  4:  5-12;  5:  12-16. 

Wednesday. — The  First  Human  Mind  Fully  Emanci- 
pated by  the  Spirit  of  Jesus.    Acts  6:  8-15;  7:  51-60. 

Thursday. — The  Conversion  of  Saul  of  Tarsus.  Acts 
9:  1-25. 

Friday: — The  Spirit  of  Jesus  Enabling  the  Church  to 
Break  Down  the  Wall  of  Prejudice.  Acts  11:  1-26;  15: 
12-21. 

Saturday. — The  Spirit  of  Jesus  Sends  Forth  the  Mis- 
sionaries. Acts  13:  1-4.  Brings  Them  to  Rome.  28:  11-16. 
And  Continues  Their  Opportunity.     28:  23-31. 


From  the  Gospels  we  now  turn  to  what  must  ever  be 
regarded  as  their  logical  and  necessary  supplement  and 
complement — namely,  the  book  called 

The  Acts  of  the  Apostles 

Introduction 

As  the  writers  of  the  four  Gospels,  from  their  va- 
rious standpoints,  give  in  vivid  outline  the  life  and 
work  of  Jesus  upon  earth  while  he  was  here  in  the 
flesh,  so  this  last  volume  treats  of  his  life  and  work 
upon  earth  through  the  presence  and  power  of  his  Spirit. 
Every  phase,  however,  is  enlarged.  The  "earth"  of  the 
Acts  ia  far  more  comprehensive  than  that  of  the  gospel 
story.  In  the  latter  it  means  hardly  more  than  the  three 
sections  that  go  to  make  up  the  little  province  of  Pales- 
tine, while  in  the  former  it  stretches  throughout  the 
length  and  breadth  of  the  Roman  Empire.  The  "life," 
(176) 


Life  and  Work  of  Jesus  177 

too,  of  Acts  is  far  fuller  and  freer  than  the  "life"  of  the 
gospel  story,  seeing  that  it  comes  in  contact  with  so 
many  more  types  of  character  and  currents  of  human 
activity.  And  hence,  too,  the  "work"  of  Jesus  in  the  Acts 
is  far  more  imposing  in  its  comprehensiveness  and  con- 
structive character,  all  because  the  life  and  work  are  now 
accomplished  through  the  medium  of  the  Spirit.  It  will 
be  our  object  to  study  the  ever-enlarging  movement  of 
this  life  and  wo-rk  as  they  unfold  under  the  master  pen 
of  the  first  great  historian  of  Christian  life  and  progress. 

As  to  this  author  we  can  say  that  nothing  to-day  is 
of  avail  in  seeking  to  displace  the  well-nigh  universally 
accepted  tradition  that  he  is  to  be  identified  with  Luke, 
the  beloved  physician,  companion  of  Paul  and  author  of 
the  third  Gospel.  The  most  recent  researches  of  Ram- 
say among  the  English  and  Harnack  among  the  Germans 
all  throw  the  weight  of  this  testimony  on  the  side  of 
the  tradition  of  early  Christian  writers  in  this  respect. 
With  this  fact  as  a  fulcrum,  we  may  well  enter  upon 
our  study  with  a  sense  of  satisfaction  that  we  are  in 
the  hands  of  a  guide  so  painstaking,  so  conscientious, 
and  so  thoroughly  equipped  as  from  the  preface  of  the 
third  Gospel  we  know  our  author  is. 

As  to  the  title  of  the  book,  we  cannot  forbear  think- 
ing that  the  world  of  Christian  scholarship  would  have 
fared  better  if,  instead  of  affixing  a  title  of  a  later  age, 
"Acts  of  the  Apostles,"  it  had  been  content  to  take  the 
author's  own  characterization  of  his  work,  which  he  has 
written  boldly  in  his  first  sentence,  at  least  by  implica- 
tion. That  first  sentence  reads:  "The  former  treatise 
I  made,  O  Theophilus,  concerning  all  that  Jesus  began 
both  to  do  and  to  teach,  until  the  day  in  which 
he  was  received  up."  Here  there  are  two  plain  infer- 
ences. In  the  first  place,  we  have  the  distinct  connec- 
tion of  this  writing  with  a  previous  one,  our  third  Gos- 
pel; and,  secondly,  we  have  it  distinctly  implied  that 
the  earthly  life  and  ministry  of  Jesus  were  simply  the 
hec/inninp  of  his  operations  in  human  history.  And  the 
way  in  which  the  author  unfolds  in  outline  the  con- 
12 


178  The  Story  of  the  New  Testament 

tinudnce  of  the  work  and  life  of  the  risen  Christ  leads 
us  almost  inevitably  to  a  third  inference — namely,  that 
having  once  entered  into  human  life  and  history,  Jesus 
has  become  a  permanent  asset  of  our  race,  and  ever 
after  that  signal  event  of  Incarnation  there  has  been  a 
force  making  for  moral  uplift  and  spiritual  power  that 
can  be  identified  only  with  the  Spirit  of  Jesus. 

This  may  suggest,  too,  a  reason  for  the  startlingly 
abrupt  ending  of  his  book.  If  we  regard  the  author's 
effort  to  be  that  of  apotheosizing  the  apostles,  he  has 
failed  most  signally;  for  he  mentions  only  a  few  of 
them,  gives  fuller  details  of  only  two  of  them,  and  all 
the  way  through  shows  himself  a  devoted  disciple  of 
only  one  of  them,  and  he  not  one  of  the  original  twelve. 
On  the  other  hand,  it  is  inferred  that  the  object  of  our 
author  was  to  remind  the  Roman  officials  of  his  day 
who  might  be  disposed  to  treat  harshly  the  members 
of  the  new  community  by  persistent  persecution  that 
the  empire  of  the  previous  generation  had  been  kind  in 
its  treatment  of  the  early  missionaries  and  to  urge 
therefore  that  they  appeal  from  Rome  drunk  to  Rome 
sober.  While  there  may  be  some  plausibility  for  this 
theory  that  Acts  is  in  reality  a  sort  of  Christian  defense 
aimed  at  a  growing  imperial  antagonism,  still  this  view 
is  largely  negatived  by  the  one  fact  that  what  considera- 
tion is  shown  by  the  governing  authorities  in  Acts  is 
largely  manifested  in  the  case  of  a  single  man,  Paul, 
and  even  in  his  case  this  courteous  treatment  is  due, 
not  to  his-  being  the  herald  of  a  new  faith,  but  to  his 
being  a  Roman  citizen.  And  Rome  must  protect  her 
citizens,  however  bad  they  might  be  in  character  or 
however  mad  they  might  be  in  religious  vagary. 

Nor  can  we  look  upon  the  Acts  as^a  history  of  early 
Christianity,  although  it  preserves  for  us  some  very  im- 
portant and  thrilling  accounts  of  the  formation  and  life 
of  many  early  Christian  communities.  But  these  are 
not  primary,  and  their  very  meagerness  prevents  our 
doing  our  historian  this  injustice.     We  turn  from  all 


Life  and  Work  of  Jesus  170 

these  partial  descriptions  of  this  book  and  revert  to 
what  seems  to  be  the  real  aim  of  the  author  himself. 

When  we  come  to  phrase  it,  we  can  find  no  fitter 
words  than  those  of  Harnack:  "The  power  of  the  Spirit 
of  Jesus  in  the  apostles  manifested  in  history."  This 
is  so  broad  that  it  must  be  subdivided.  Our  author's 
own  subdivisions  are  unmistakable.  In  the  eighth  verse 
of  his  first  chapter  he  gives  us  the  key  to  the  scope  of 
his  work  in  the  ever-memorable  words  that  fall  from 
the  lips  of  Jesus:  "Ye  shall  be  my  witnesses  both  in 
Jerusalem,  and  in  all  Judea  and  Samaria,  and  unto  the 
uttermost  part  of  the  earth," 

Taking  the  full  implication  of  this  verse  and  revert- 
ing to  our  former  statement  concerning  the  abrupt  clos- 
ing of  Acts,  we  see  a  splendid  pertinence  in  the  way  in 
which  the  author  comes  to  a  full  stop  right  in  the  midst 
of  the  most  interesting  phase  of  his  whole  story,  as  if 
by  so  much  silence  to  convince  us  that  his  work  is  by 
no  means  finished,  because  the  delineation  of  that  work, 
"the  power  of  the  Spirit  of  Jesus  in  the  apostles,"  is 
still  being  manifested  in  history.  And  so  the  story  of 
the  life  and  work  of  the  Master  has  become  a  serial 
running  through  all  times  and  climes,  contributed  to 
by  all  disciples,  however  humble,  and  the  mighty  vol- 
ume of  history  itself  will  have  to  be  closed  ere  one 
can  legitimately  affix  the  word  "Finis"  in  dealing  with 
the  revelation  which  God  has  given  the  world  in  Christ. 

In  pursuing  the  fascinating  story  of  the  Spirit  of 
Jesus  as  he  makes  himself  manifest  in  the  life  of  his 
disciples  in  history,  Luke  seems  to  indicate  several 
signal  centers  about  which  his  narrative  revolves.  The 
first  of  these  centers  is  extremely  important  as  connect- 
ing up  the  life  of  Jesus  in  the  flesh  with  that  life  as 
manifested  in  the  Spirit.  To  it  our  author  gives  nearly 
one-third  of  his  book  (Acts  1:  1-8:  4  and  some  later 
sections,  such  as  chapters  12  and  15).  This  section 
should  be  studied  under  the  caption: 


180         The  Story  of  the  New  Testament 

The  Spirit  of  Jesus  Manifested  in  the  Founding  and 

Developing  of  the  Primitive  Band  of  Disciples 

in  Jerusalem 

This  is  most  important  from  Luke's  standpoint  as 
giving  us  the  place  of  the  new  movement  in  history,  just 
as  the  life  of  our  Lord  in  the  flesh  in  its  public  phase 
began  in  the  city  of  Jerusalem.  "He  came  unto  his 
own."  So  this  integrity  of  intention  to  start  where 
God's  name  is  already  known  is  consistently  maintained, 
so  that  the  very  streets  through  which  his  earthly 
path  had  lain  became  the  great  avenues  through  which 
the  voice  of  his  Spirit  reaches  to  the  end  of  the  earth, 
and  the  very  temple  which  had  been  the  scene  of  per- 
secution and  outrage  upon  his  person  in  the  days  of  his 
flesh  becomes  in  the  first  pages  of  this  new  volume  the 
veritable  Shekinah  from  which  glows  in  gracious 
splendor,  untrammeled  and  unalloyed,  the  mighty  power 
of  the  spirit  of  the  exalted  One. 

Through  several  chapters  the  author  pursues  with 
fascinating  detail  the  emergence  of  the  band  from  the 
seclusion  of  the  upper  room,  where,  all  told,  they  num- 
ber but  sixscore,  to  the  publicity. which  great  numbers, 
a  manifest  social  uprising,  and  a  demonstrated  spiritual 
community  always  precipitate.  It  is  in  these  three 
points  that  the  author  sees  the  presence  and  power  of 
the  Spirit  of  Jesus.  The  growth  is  marvelous,  and  this 
is  a  proof  of  the  convincing  and  converting  power  of 
this  Spirit  of  truth.  The  social  significance  of  the 
movement  as  it  registers  itself  in  community  of  goods, 
sacrifice  for  the  brotherhood,  and  loving  devotion  among 
the  body  of  believers  is  a  manifest  token  of  the  presence 
of  Him  who  brought  into  the  world  the  new  command- 
ment of  love;  while  the  new  spiritual  supremacy  rest- 
ing in  the  hands  of  humble  fishermen,  which  makes 
them  more  than  a  match  for  the  most  learned  and  pow- 
erful theologians  of  the  day,  is  a  complete  demonstra- 
tion of  the  residence  in  their  midst  of  Him  who  is  the 
Truth,  the  Way,  and  the  Life. 


Life  and  Work  of  Jesus  181 

Now,  all  this  is  of  the  very  greatest  moment  from  the 
standpoint  of  Luke.  He  has  already  told  Theophilus  the 
story  of  the  life  and  work  of  Jesus  in  the  flesh.  He  has 
already  registered  his  signal  defeat  in  Jerusalem.  With 
how  great  joy  he  pens  this  victorious  sequel  we  can 
hardly  imagine.  The  tragic  gloom  of  Calvary  has  given 
way  before  the  all-conquering  splendors  of  Pentecost, 
and  the  city  over  which  Jesus  in  the  days  of  his  flesh 
wept  in  vain  (Luke  19:  41)  has  finally  been  aroused 
to  a  sense  of  its  own  shame  and  need.  Callous  con- 
sciences are  pricked,  the  fountains  of  a  deep  grief  are 
opened  up,  confession  of  civic  crime  is  made,  conversions 
in  multiplied  thousands  take  place,  and  constructive 
means  are  undertaken  for  the  establishment  of  a  uni- 
versal Brotherhood  in  the  name  of  the  only  Son.  The 
kingdom  of  God  begins  tp  take  shape,  and  the  New 
Jerusalem  with  its  spirit  of  love  begins  in  the  very 
heart  of  that  old  Jerusalem  which  had  been  so  full  of 
hate.  Surely  a  great  joy  it  was  for  Luke  to  pen  this 
sequel  of  victory!  And  this  really  seems  to  be  the  key- 
note of  this  whole  writing.  The  gospel  that  could 
break  down  Jewish  pride  and  prejudice,  that  could 
snatch  converts  from  the  very  criminals  that  had  caused 
the  Christ  to  be  crucified,  that  could  make  martyrs  of 
the  truth  out  of  Jerusalem  fanatics — certainly  such  a 
movement  was  a  movement  of  conquest.  It  need  have 
had  no  fear  as  it  started  out  on  its  world-conquering 
tour.  If  it  could  begin  at  Jerusalem,  no  geographical 
lines  or  racial  barriers  would  be  strong  enough  to  stay 
its  onward  march. 

But  beginning  at  Jerusalem  is  only  the  initiatory  step 
in  the  advance  of  the  Spirit  of  Jesus.  The  second  great 
phase  in  the  development  of  the  progress  of  the  move- 
ment is 

The  Gentile  Mission 

The  Church  at  Jerusalem  is  never  a  finality.  Church 
and  churches  exist  only  for  the  extension  of  the  king- 
dom.    One  thing  written  large  in  Acts  is  that  the  Spirit 


182         The  Story  of  the  New  Testament 

of  Christ  is  constantly  enlarging  our  minds  as  to  the 
plans  and  purposes  God  has  for  the  race.  This  Spirit 
of  Christ  is  racial;  the  spirit  of  Judaism,  of  England, 
and  of  America  is  national,  Christ  is  superlatively  the 
Son  of  man;  we  are  too  often  simply  the  sons  of  our 
earthly  fathers—^ecclesiastical,  educational,  sectional,  or 
what  not.  Inevitably  there  will  at  times  come  a  clash 
between  the  Spirit  of  Jesus  and  these  other  lesser,  nar- 
rower spirits.  It  came  in  the  early  Church  very  quick- 
ly, and  it  came  in  a  manner  quite  unobtrusive.  While 
seeking  in  all  candor  and  kindness  to  meet  an  economic 
problem  (Acts  6:  1-6),  the  primitive  Christian  band  sud- 
denly put  itself  in  a  position  to  have  to  face  one  of  the 
most  decisive  crises  in  the  history  of  the  Christian 
movement. 

Truly  the  coming  of  the  kingdom  is  not  with  observa- 
tion. This  is  by  no  means  the  last  time  in  human  his- 
tory when  an  honest  attempt  to  adjust  an  economic 
difference  has  given  men  an  opportunity  to  glimpse 
afresh  the  Spirit  of  Jesus,  for  that  is  just  the  significance 
of  Stephen.  We  see  in  him  for  the  first  time  again  in- 
carnate the  Spirit  of  Jesus.  Under  all  outward  form 
and  machinery  he  caught,  and  he  alone  caught,  the  true 
principle  implied  in  Christianity:  that  it  was  a  universal 
faith  unconditioned  by  rules  and  regulations  of  a  na- 
tional sort,  that  its  destiny  was  world-wide,  and  that 
in  the  pursuit  of  its  God-given  goal  it  would  have  to 
cut  loose  from  many  of  the  moorings  of  the  past.  We 
have  no  space  to  show  how  eloquently  and  convincingly 
he  set  forth  these  views.  They  are  written  in  letters  of 
living  light  and  fire  in  the  immortal  seventh  chapter  of 
Luke's  narrative,  where,  after  nearly  twenty  centuries 
have  sped,  we  still  go  to  feel  the  thrilling  power  of  this 
first  martyr's  faith.  The  point  we  wish  to  emphasize 
is  that  the  Spirit  of  Jesus  always  discovers  itself  in 
the  community  of  believers,  and  out  of  the  narrowness 
and  prejudice  of  the  Jerusalem  body  itself  there  issues 
a  voice  that  utters  a  call  to  universal  conquest.  Of 
course  that  voice  is   soon  hushed   in  death.     But  the 


Life  and  Work  of  Jesus  183 

Spirit  of  Jesus  cannot  be  entombed.  It  is  not  possible 
for  the  gates  of  death  to  hold  the  Lord  of  life;  and  so, 
just  as  a  few  years  before  there  had  been  a  death  grue- 
some and  horrid,  followed  by  a  resurrection  most  glori- 
ous, so  now,  though  Stephen's  body  is  buried  under  the 
stones  of  persecuting  fury,  his  spirit  cannot  be  killed, 
simply  because  it  is  the  Spirit  of  Jesus.  It  survives  to 
haunt  for  a  time  the  vacillating  leadership  of  the  early 
Church  as  it  plays  hide  and  seek  with  both  opportunity 
and  obligation,  and  finally  to  incarnate  itself  in  the  life 
of  the  greatest  exponent  and  expounder  the  Spirit  of 
Jesus  has  as  yet  discovered  among  the  sons  of  men — 
Saul  of  Tarsus. 

The  intimate  connection  between  Stephen  and  Saul 
has  been  voiced  of  old  for  us  in  the  cfft-quoted  couplet: 

"Si  Stephanus  non  precasset, 
Paulus  nunquam  prsedicasset." 

["Had  not  Stephen  prayed, 
Paul  had  never  preached."] 

But  the  historical  continuity  is  not  so  close.  The 
martyrdom  of  Stephen  marks  the  climax  of  the  first 
section  of  Luke's  narrative.  Paul's  work  is  described  in 
the  third  section,  extending  from  chapter  thirteen  on. 
In  between  there  is  a  section  (chapters  8:  4  through 
12:  24)  which  traces  the  record  of  the  transition  from 
Judaic  Christianity  to  Gentile  Christianity.  In  Judaic 
Christianity  the  center  is  Jerusalem,  the  leaders  are 
Peter  and  John,  and  the  general  interpretation  of  the 
New  Movement  is  that  it  is  simply  the  culmination  of 
Judaism;  in  the  section  devoted  to  the  history  of  the 
Gentile  expansion  the  center  is  for  the  most  part  An- 
tioch,  the  leader  is  preeminently  Paul,  and  the  general 
interpretation  of  Christianity  is  that  it  is  a  religion 
of  the  Spirit  of  Jesus  working  itself  out  in  individual 
and  social  experience,  and  its  characteristic  note  is  free- 
dom from  all  the  bonds  of  legalism  and  an  abiding  joy 
in  the  consciousness  of  divine  sonship.  The  period  con- 
necting these  two  is  the  transition  time  when  the  cen- 


184         The  Story  of  the  New  Testament 

ter  is  Samaria,  the  leader  is  Philip,  and  the  general  In- 
terpretation is  not  clearly  defined — the  gospel  is  in 
process  of  discovering  itself  in  the  minds  and  hearts  of 
those  who  profess  it.  They  are  learning  by  the  events  of 
daily  life  and  providential  development  what  the  mind 
of  the  Spirit  of  Jesus  is.  And  so  Philip's  experience  in 
Samaria,  and  more  especially  the  signal  disclosure  of 
the  incident  of  the  eunuch,  constitute  epochs  in  the  ex- 
perience of  the  early  Church  as  it  seeks  to 

Keep  Step  with  the  Spirit  of  Jesus 

in  his  onward  and  ever-enlarging  conquest  of  the  world. 
How  difficult  was  the  progress  at  times  is  shown  in  this 
section  by  the  story  of  Peter's  conversion  to  the  theory 
of  Gentile  admissibility  (Acts  10).  His  conversion  is- 
hard  enough  to  secure;  but  even  when  secured  it  is  of 
short  duration.  But  the  Spirit  of  Jesus  refuses  to  be 
cribbed  and  cabined  and  confined  within  the  narrow 
limits  of  the  dictates  of  a  self-deluded  churchism.  In 
the  first  century,  as  in  many  another,  especially  our 
own,  has  the  Spirit  of  Jesus  forsaken  the  path  oft  trod 
before  and  found  expression  in  directions  hitherto  un- 
imagined.  The  one  great  lesson  of  all  history  is  that,  so 
far  as  the  growth  of  God's  kingdom  on  earth  is  con- 
cerned, the  people  that  are  a  "no  people"  are  constantly 
coming  into  the  range  of  the  divine  purpose  and  are 
made  to  rejoice  in  the  blessed  experience  of  becoming 
a  "my  people."  So  proud  Jerusalem  loses  its  leadership 
to  despised  Samaria,  just  as  it  did  in  the  days  of  Jesus's 
flesh. 

But  even  the  freedom  of  the  outlying  provinces  is 
not  full  enough  nor  large  enough  for  the  Spirit  of  Jesus 
to  have  a  proper  sphere  for  activity.  The  world  alone 
is  big  enough  for  a  habitat  for  such  a  Spirit.  So  as 
we  follow  the  course  of  the  Christian  movement  de- 
scribed in  the  last  section  of  Luke's  account  we  are 
constantly  thrilled  by  the  ever-changing  center  of  gravity 
of  the  kingdom  of  Christ  upon  earth. 

First    Jerusalem,    then    Samaria,    then    Antioch.   then 


Life  and  Work  of  Jesus  185 

Corinth,  then  Ephesus,  then  Rome — these  all  in  the  life 
and  work  of  a  single  generation  become  the  successive 
centers  of  ever-enlarging  circles  of  activity  as  the  Spirit 
of  Jesus  goes  forth  to  write  its  work  in  human  history. 
And  in  all  these  centers  it  registers  its  presence  in  the 
triple  miracle  of  transformed  individual  lives,  trans- 
formed social  ideals,  and  transformed  religious  motives. 
Wherever  the  Spirit  of  the  Son  goes,  sons  are  begotten, 
brotherhoods  are  formed,  and  the  Father  God  is  loved 
and  worshiped.  This  triple  miracle  takes  place  in  Jeru- 
salem, the  city  of  the  great  King.  Yes,  but  it  takes 
place,  too,  in  Corinth,  the  city  of  the  greatest  corrup- 
tion; it  takes  place  in  Ephesus,  the  metropolis  of  Asia 
Minor  and  mother  of  all  heathen  superstition,  and  this 
city  of  Diana  becomes  a  missionary  base  from  which 
Paul  and  his  helpers  reach  all  the  surrounding  provinces 
with  the  light  of  life.  It  intrenches  itself  at  the  foot 
of  Mount  Olympus,  and  at  Thessalonica,  the  holy  city  of 
ancient  heathenism,  is  begun  a  work  that  sounds  a  new 
note  for  Europe  and  the  modern  world.  Yes.  this  Spirit 
of  Jesus,  gathering  new  momentum  as  it  goes  from  city 
to  city,  from  country  to  country,  from  continent  to  con- 
tinent, does  not  halt  until,  despite  all  the  opposition  and 
persecution  that  hell  and  earth  can  devise,  it  forges  its 
way  through  the  thick  walls  of  the  imperial  capital 
itself,  and  amid  the  dungeons  of  imperial  Rome  there 
glows  the  light  of  the  glory  of  God  revealed  in  the  face 
of  Jesus  Christ. 

Luke's  pen  could  not  stop  until  it  reached  this  goal. 
But  having  reached  it,  he  is  content.  His  last  verse  is 
the  verse  of  victory:  "Preaching  the  kingdom  of  God, 
and  teaching  the  things  concerning  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ  with  all  boldness,  none  forbidding  him."  And 
so  this  account,  so  full  of  bloodshed  and  persecution  of 
the  most  cruel  type,  so  full  of  human  bigotry  and  pride, 
so  full  of  shortsightedness  on  the  part  of  the  Church 
leaders  and  of  failure  and  folly  on  the  part  of  the 
membership,  so  full  of  the  mistakes  and  miscalculations 
that  ever  accompany  the  acts  of  even  the  best  of  God's 


186         The  Story  of  the  New  Testament 

children — this  book  works  its  way  through  all  this  tur- 
moil and  confusion,  over  all  these  obstacles,  and  past 
all  these  limitations  and  closes  in  the  city  of  the  Caesars 
with  a  paean  of  praise  over  the  conquest  of  the  Spirit 
of  Jesus,  just  as  in  its  opening  chapters  a  generation 
before  it  had  in  the  city  of  Jerusalem  sounded  the  roll 
call  of  the  world  of  its  day  after  the  fashion  of  some 
victorious  general  who  was  proclaiming  his  triumph 
over  vanquished  nations:  "Parthians,  and  Medes,  and 
Elamites,  and  the  dwellers  in  Mesopotamia,  and  in  Ju- 
dea,  and  Cappadocia,  in  Pontus,  and  Asia,  Phrygia,  and 
Pamphylia,  in  Egypt,  and  in  the  parts  of  Libya  about 
Cyrene,  and  strangers  of  Rome,  Jews  and  proselytes, 
Cretes  and  Arabians,  we  do  hear  them  speak  in  our 
tongue  the  wonderful  works  of  God"  (Acts  2:  9-11). 
What  was  part  prophecy  then  has  become,  for  the  most 
part,  history  now.  The  word  of  Jesus  has  been  fulfilled, 
and  his  people  have  been  witnesses  of  him  in  Jerusalem 
and  in  all  Judea  and  Samaria  and  unto  all  the  uttermost 
parts  of  the  earth. 

And  so  if  we  are  to  be  true  to  Luke's  key  verse  (1:8) 
we  shall  find  the  one  great  mark  of  the  presence  of  the 
Spirit  of  Jesus  in  the 

Note  of  Progress 

which  is  being  forever  sounded  in  the  pages  of  Acts. 
There  is  a  progress  in  geographical  extension.  The 
walls  of  Jerusalem  are  overleaped  by  the  Spirit  of  Je- 
sus, the  semi-heathenism  of  Samaria  is  purified,  the 
materialism  of  Galilean  Messianism  is  spiritualized,  the 
pride  of  Roman  scorn  is  humbled,  the  wisdom  of  the 
Greek  world  is  taught  its  own  foolishness,  and  the  crass- 
ness  of  barbarism  is  cured  and  its  fierceness  tamed. 
Over  land  and  sea  this  Spirit  goes,  seeking,  like  Noah's 
dove,  a  place  to  rest  and  work;  across  mountain  chains 
and  the  invisible  but  oftentimes  impassable  lines  of 
national  boundaries — across  all  these  and  more  the  all- 
conquering  Spirit  of  Jesus  goes.     There  is  certainly  a 


Life  and  Work  of  Jesus  187 

note  of  geographical  progress  sounded  -in  this  book  that 
Luke  has  given  us. 

A  second  note  of  progress  is  that  of  progress  along 
lines  of  religious  and  theological  interpretation.  As  the 
world  grows  in  the  apostolic  consciousness,  God  grows. 
As  civilizations  of  which  they  had  little  knowledge  rise 
before  their  gaze  and  religions  of  which  they  had  been 
hitherto  ignorant  come  into  view,  their  conception  of 
God  as  the  God  of  nations  and  the  Father  of  the  human 
spirit  makes  the  old-time  national  deity  of  the  Jews 
recede,  and  by  reason  of  that  perpetual  revelation  which 
is  being  continually  registered  in  racial  development 
the  early  Church  was  led  into  larger  and  more  satisfy- 
ing conceptions  of  the  nature  of  God  and  into  clearer 
and  truer  recognition  of  his  relationship  to  the  race.     ^ 

A  third  note  of  progress  is  sounded  in  the  wonderful 
expansion  of  the  Church's  mind  and  life  in  the  matter  of 
social  sympathy.  It  is  one  thing  to  feel  the  bond  of 
brotherhood  in  the  Jerusalem  Church;  it  is  an  entirely 
different  thing  to  manifest  it  in  Ephesus  or  Corinth  or 
Rome.  For  Saul  of  Tarsus  to  persecute  the  Christians 
was  thoroughly  natural,  the  legitimate  outcome  of  Jew- 
ish solidarity.  For  him  to  plead  with  and  pray  for  the 
Colossians,  especially  for  him  to  grasp  the  hand  of  one 
of  them,  Onesimus,  a  slave,  and  see  in  him  a  brother 
beloved,  is  entirely  supernatural— or  rather  it  is  the 
natural  manifestation  of  the  super-Spirit  that  has  en- 
tered into  the  world  of  social  relations,  the  Spirit  of 
Jesus. 

Then,  too,  there  is  progress  in  the  book  of  Acts  from 
the  standpoint  of  the  means  used  and  the  polity  de- 
veloped in  the  organization  and  extension  of  the  king- 
dom. It  is  a  far  call  from  the  elaborate  ceremonials 
of  an  institutionalized  religiosity  like  that  which  throt- 
tled the  life  of  Judaism  to  the  spontaneity  of  the  Spirit's 
leadership  we  see  as  early  Christianity  goes  forth  con- 
quering and  to  conquer,  a  still  farther  cry  from  the 
bedecked  and  bedizened  puppets  that  strut  about  in  the 
role  of  priests  to  the  fishermen  clad  in  homespun  who 


188         The  Story  of  the  Neiv  Testament 

fulfill  the  function  of  prophets  of  the  new  order.  We 
see  that  here,  too,  the  Spirit  of  Jesus  has  made  all 
things  new.  By  the  mighty  momentum  of  its  Impact  it 
has  shifted  the 

Center  of  Gravity 

in  more  ways  than  one.  Old  views  have  disappeared 
forever,  old  institutions  have  been  displaced,  old  para- 
phernalia has  been  cast  aside,  old  prejudices  have  been 
destroyed,  old  horizons  have  been  enlarged — all  things 
under  the  enlarging  and  uplifting  power  of  the  Spirit 
of  Jesus  have  become  new. 

This  is  finally  tantamount  to  saying  that  early  Chris- 
tianity came  to  itself  only  as  it  went  to  the  world.  The 
Spirit  of  Christ  cannot  be  known  in  all  the  fullness  of 
it  until  it  has  an  adequate  area  over  which  to  operate. 
We  can  never  know  Christ  completely  until  we  have 
gone  into  all  the  worlds  we  know  and  have  proclaimed 
his  revelation;  for  each  manifestation  of  his  Spirit  but 
evokes  a  corresponding  commentary  in  individual,  so- 
cial, and  religious  life  that  adds  all  the  more  to  the 
marvelous  greatness  of  Him  who  is  indeed  the  Life  of 
the  ages. 

How  foolish,  then,  for  us  to-day,  with  the  history  of 
the  Spirit  of  Jesus  in  the  first  century  before  us — how 
foolish  for  us  of  the  twentieth  century  to  hobble  our 
faith  with  a  medieval  conception  of  God,  to  narrow  our 
sympathies  to  the  little  rut  of  sectarian  bigotry,  to  em- 
barrass our  progress  by  holding  on  to  methods  of  which 
Methuselah  might- well  be  ashamed,  and  in  the  glowing 
and  thrilling  atmosphere  of  Christian  democracy  to  fly 
in  the  face  of  the  Spirit  of  the  Master  of  men  by  seeking 
to  perpetuate  forms  of  ecclesiastical  polity  that  divine 
judgment  dethroned  in  the  days  of  Caiaphas,  when  hu- 
manity was  sacrificed  on  the  altar  of  hierarchical  im- 
becility! All  this  the  Spirit  of  Jesus,  as  it  manifests 
itself  in  the  life  of  his  disciples  in  history,  has  protested 
against  and  will  ever  continue  so  to  do  until  that  Spirit 
shall   dominate  all   individual,   industrial,   social,   politi- 


Lije  and  Work  of  Jesus  189 

cal,  artistic,  and  religious  life — until,  in  fine,  the  king- 
doms of  this  world  become  the  kingdom  of  our  Lord 
and  of  his  Christ.  And  then  it  will  be  dn  order  for  some 
future  Luke  to  take  up  his  pen  and  write  with  a  com- 
prehensiveness and  emphasis  hitherto  unknown  the  last 
verse  as  he  sees  the  Spirit  of  Jesus  enthroned  in  the 
heart  of  the  ivorld,  "preaching  the  kingdom  of  God,  and 
teaching  the  things  concerning  the  Lord  Christ  unmO' 
lestedly."  ' 


Thought  Questions 

1.  Is  there  any  objection  to  the  traditional  title  of 
the  book  we  are  studying?  If  so,  can  you  suggest  one 
more  appropriate  to  the  contents?  Can  you  recall  the 
words  in  which  the  great  historian  Harnack  states  the 
subject  of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles? 

2.  What  is  the  purpose  of  the  first  of  the  larger  di- 
visions of  the  Acts  (1-8:  4)  and  what  is  the  general 
scope  of  the  events  recorded  therein? 

3.  Remembering  from  our  discussion  of  the  fourfold 
gospel  (Chapter  X.)  that  the  idea  of  writing  the  Gos- 
pels developed  backward  from  the  resurrection  and  that 
of  the  Acts  forward  from  the  same  focal  event,  would 
you  say  that  our  more  usual  conception  of  the  Christ 
is  that  of  Jesus  as  portrayed  in  the  Gospels  or  that  of 
the  Christ  as  worshiped  in  the  Acts?  In  other  words, 
do  our  faith  and  thought  dwell  more  upon  Jesus  Christ 
before  or  after  the  resurrection? 

4.  What  place  does  Stephen  occupy  in  the  development 
of  the  Church,  the  body  of  Christ,  and  what  is  the  sig- 
nificance of  his  short  life  as  a  teacher  and  preacher  and 
martyr? 

5.  Recall  the  leading  events  narrated  in  Acts  8:  4-12: 
24  (the  dispersion  of  the  persecuted  disciples  and  the 
mission  to  Samaria;  the  conversion  of  the  Ethiopian; 
the  conversion  of  Saul  of  Tarsus;  his  witnessing  and 
preaching  in  Damascus,  Jerusalem,  and  Tarsus;  Peter's 
mission  to  the  house  of  Cornelius  and  the  controversy 
over  that  mission  in  the  Church  at  Jerusalem;  the 
preaching  of  the  gospel  in  Cyprus,  Antioch,  and  Phoe- 
nicia; the  renewal  of  the  persecution  in  Jerusalem)  and 
estimate  the  nature  of  the  transition,  if  not  revolution, 
in  religious  thinking  that  was  occurring. 

6.  As  the  Christian  movement  changes  its  center  by 
missionary  advance  from  Jerusalem  to  Samaria,  to  An- 


190  The  Siorj/  of  fhc  Ncic  Trstamrnt 

tioch,  to  Thessalonica,  to  Corinth,  to  Ephesus,  to  Rome, 
what  threefold  manifestation  of  the  Spirit  of  Jesus  oc- 
curs in  the  midst  of  most  widely  differing  conditions? 

7.  Beside  the  geographical  what  other  notes  of  prog- 
ress have  we  in  the  Acts — as  to  conceptions  of  God,  of 
society  and  of  the  organization  and  means  of  extending 
the  kingdom  of  God? 

8.  Is  it  conceivable  that  a  non-missionary  religion 
should  admit  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles  among  its  inspired 
documents? 

9.  What  significance  do  you  find  in  the  abrupt  ending 
of  Luke's  account  of  the  activities  of  the  Spirit  of  Je- 
sus in  the  world — that  he  broke  off  his  narrative  in  an 
incomplete  state  rather  than  finish  it? 

10.  Is  it  conceivable  Ihat  at  some  future  time  some 
later  Luke  may  finish  the  history  with  a  realization  of 
what  John  foresaw  in  his  visions  on  Patmos? 


Xll.   E  PLURIBUS  UNUM;   OR,   THE  RISE 
OF  THE  CANON 

DKsriTK  the  Interest  with  which  we  have  followed  the 
history  of  our  New  Testament  writings  In  their  indi- 
vidual and  isolated  birth,  the  most  fascinating  part  of 
the  story  is  yet  to  be  told.  This  is  to  recount  how  in 
answer  to  the  needs  of  the  evergrowing  Christian  con- 
sciousness these  various  letters,  tracts,  and  histories 
gradually  emerge  from  the  seclusion  of  primal  posses- 
sion on  the  part  of  single  and  widely  separated  con- 
gregations and  individuals  and  ultimately  become  a  sin- 
gle volume,  the  most  precious  heritage  of  the  Church 
universal. 

Our  treatment  must  be  very  general;  if  for  no  other 
reason  that  the  period  we  have  to  cover  is  so  long.  It 
stretches  from  the  end  of  the  Apostolic  Age  to  the  latter 
years  of  the  fourth  century.  In  other  words  we  have 
been  able  to  give  eight  chapters  to  the  half  century  dur- 
ing which  the  New  Testament  writings  were  in  the  mak- 
ing and  have  found  this  far  too  limited;  now  we  are  to 
cover  at  least  two  and  three-quarters  centuries  in  one- 
eighth  the  space!  With  odds,  therefore,  of  forty- four  to 
one,  our  statement  must  be  summary  in  the  extreme  and 
to  a  large  degree  more  dogmatic  than  discussional.  Our 
sole  aim  must  be  to  emphasize  the  main  points  in  that 
process  by  which  these  twenty-seven  differently  occa- 
sioned and  widely  separated  documents  slowly  gravitated 
together  by  a  sort  of  spiritual  affinity  and  ultimately  were 
fursed  into  a  unity  and  solidarity  that  the  Church,  in  all 
after  ages,  has  seen  fit  to  recognize  as  the  ultimate  norm 
of  Christian  creed  and  conduct. 

The  suggestion  that  it  is  a  process  at  once  declares 
that  it  has  its  roots  in  the  past.  And  right  here  on  the 
threshold  of  our  discussion  we  note  that  the  early  Chris- 
tian Church  is  indebted  to  Judaism  for  the  Idea  that 
afterwards  came  to  be  embodied  in  the  canonization  of 

(191) 


192  The  Story  of  the  New  Testament 

their  own  writings.  For  these  Jews  from  whom  the  first 
Christians  came  had  their  authoritative  Scriptures.  Be- 
ginning doubtless  as  early  as  the  seventh  century,  B.C., 
they  had  by  the  time  of  the  Christian  era  well-nigh  "ar- 
rived" along  this  line.  At  any  rate,  the  Canon,  or  Bible, 
of  the  Church  at  the  time  of  its  origin  consisted  of  the 
Old  Testament  together  with  the  Apocrypha.  This  we 
can  see  from  the  way  the  writers  of  our  Christian  Scrip- 
tures quote;  and  we  can  see,  moreover,  that  it  was  the 
Greek  Version  (known  as  the  "Septuagint")  of  these 
Hebrew  writings.  This  version  spread  over  two  cen- 
turies in  its  making  and  was  scattered  as  wide  as  the 
Dispersion  in  its  circulation.  It  is  the  version  that 
Paul  uses  in  his  preaching,  it  is  the  version  the  prose- 
lytes are  familiar  with,  and,  finally,  it  is  the  version  that 
the  Christians  of  the  early  day  regarded  as  the  real  con- 
tent of  Old  Testament  revelation.  This  is  the  "Scripture" 
that  Peter  and  John,  along  with  their  contemporaries, 
were  always  referring  to,  the  "Law,"  the  "Prophets,"  and 
the  "Scriptures."  And  they  knew  no  other  authority 
for  conscience  or  conduct  until  there  stood  in  their 
midst  One  who  spake  as  one  possessing  inherent  au- 
thority, "l^ot  as  the  scribes"  was  the  starting  point 
of  the  new  light  and  leading.  These  men  of  Galilee 
could  not  hear  Jesus's  constant  antithesis,  "Ye  have 
heard  .  .  .  but  I  say"  very  often  without  becoming 
more  or  less  conscious  of  a  time  when  they  would  put 
the  Lord's  words  on  a  par  with,  or  even  above  their 
written  record.  They  soon,  indeed,  did  come  to  the  ul- 
timate truth  that  inspiration  is  in  man  primarily  and 
only  secondarily  in  man's  script.  The  Living  Word 
antedates  the  literary  word. 

This  constitutes  the  first  or  preliminary  stage  in  the 
rise  of  the  New  Testament  Canon.  Before  the  idea  had 
been  faintly  hinted,  save  by  way  of  Judaism,  long  be- 
fore' the  epithet  had  been  adopted,  gradually  there  rises 
in  the  minds  of  disciples,  people,  rulers,  friends,  and 
foes  alike  the  consciousness  that  here  is-  One  who  speaks 


The  Rise  of  the  Canon  193 

with  an  authority  that  inheres  in  himself  and  not  with 
the  borrowed  leverage  of  the  scribes,  however  learned. 

Now  in  its  form  this  is  as  far  as  possible  from  what  we 
regard  as  a  canon.  For  this  canon  of  the  Lord's  words 
was  not  a  thing  written  down  or  even  codified,  but 
simply  the  oral  tradition  delivered  by  word  of  mouth 
on  the  part  of  Jesus  and  heard  more  or  less  dis- 
tinctly by  the  ear  of  listening  disciples.  Jesus  left  no 
written  record;  his  single  written  sentence  seems  to 
be  the  one  he  scratched  upon  the  sand  (John  8:  8). 
Nor  does  Jesus  seem  to  have  made  any  definite  pro- 
vision for  his  disciples'  doing  any  writing,  but  he 
was  supremely  convinced  of  the  immortality  of  his 
teachings.  Standing  firm  on  the  consciousness  of  their 
intrinsic  value  to  human  nature  and  their  true  pic- 
turing of  the  heart  of  God,  he  looked  down  the  ages, 
strewn  with  the  wrecks  of  earthly  systems  and  creeds, 
and  exclaimed  with  the  calmness  of  Omniscience  itself: 
"Heaven  and  earth  shall  pass  away,  but  my  words  shall 
never  pass  away!" 

So  just  as  in  our  previous  studies  we  have  seen  that 
tlie  teaching  of  Jesus  forms  the  core  of  our  New  Tes- 
tament as  a  literary  product,  so  now  we  recognize  that 
the  authority  that  the  first  disciples  were  led  to  ex- 
tend to  these  teachings  constitutes  the  central  factor 
in  the  later  process  of  canonization. 

This  fact  of  the  Lord's  words  being  the  germ  of 
canonical  authority  is  frequently  attested  in  the  pages 
of  our  Scriptures.  As  far  back  as  1  Thessalonians,  in 
all  probability  the  earliest,  we  hear  Paul  basing  a 
prophecy  on  "a  word  of  the  Lord"  (4:  15).  Certain- 
ly this  antedates  any  written  record  we  have  of  Christ's 
teaching.  Again  in  Galatians  6:  2  we  have  him  refer- 
ring to  the  law  of  Christ  that  is  to  be  fulfilled  by  bear- 
ing the  burdens  of  the  weak.  A  stronger  case  is  seen 
in  1  Corinthians  7:  10,  25,  where  on  the  one  hand  on 
the  question  of  divorce  Paul  has  a  word  of  Jesus  which 
for  him  settles  the  question;  but,  on  the  other  hand, 
13 


194  Tlie  Story  of  the  Xcic  Testament 

in  the  matter  of  virgins'  marrying  he  has  no  such 
statement  and  contents  himself  with  giving  his  own 
judgment.  Of  like  character  is  his  reference  to  min- 
isterial support  as  given  in  1  Corinthians  9:  14:  "Even 
so  hath  the  Lord  ordained."  This  principle  is  recorded 
by  Luke  (10:  7);  but  this  does  not  imply  that  Paul  is 
referring  to  the  record  in  the  third  Gospel  (which  cer- 
tainly comes  after  1  Corinthians),  but  that  both  are 
reporting  the  common  oral  tradition.  In  such  cate- 
gories also  must  we  place  the  reference  to  the  institu- 
tion of  the  Lord's  Supper  (1  Cor.  11:  23ff)  and  finally 
the  saying  of  our  Lord  reported  by  Paul  in  Acts  20:  35 
and  hitherto  found  nowhere  else:  "It  is  more  blessed 
to  give  than  to  get." 

Now  the  point  of  all  this  is  that  the  authority  of 
Jesus  is  recognized  not  because  it  is  written  down 
in  a  'book,  but  simply  because  these  commands  and 
directions  are  regarded  as  genuine  sayings  of  his,  even 
though  they  come  through  the  medium  of  oral  trans- 
mission. 

In  the  light  of  this  underlying  principle  we  must 
now  glance  at  the  history  of  the  word  canon  as  used 
in  the  caption  of  our  present  chapter. 

Scholars  tell  us  that  the  word  springs  from  a  He- 
brew root  kana,  which  means  "to  stand  a  thing  up 
straight";  its  noun  form  was  kane,  which  meant  at 
first  "a  reed"  (compare  our  English  "cane") ;  secondly, 
it  denoted  the  rod  or  beam  of  a  pair  of  scales,  and 
eventually  the  scales  themselves.  In  Greek  the  word 
kanon,  which  we  spell  in  English  letters  canon,  was 
used  to  designate  any  straight  stick,  as  a  yardstick. 
From  this  it  passed  into  many  spheres  of  usage  to 
mean  anything  that  "was  a  measure  or  rule  for  other 
things."  The  carpenter  called  his  rule  or  his  level 
his  canon;  again,  the  artist  or  sculptor  called  his  model 
his  canon;  in  music  the  monochord  was  called  the 
canon;  in  lierature  the  Alexandrian  grammarians 
called    the    masterpieces    of    the    classical    period    the 


The  Rise  of  the  Canon  195 

canon;  in  chronology  the  great  decisive  dates  were 
called  the  canons  Other  uses  were  perfectly  natural. 
The  moralist  called  his  rule  for  right  or  wrong  his 
canon;  we  hear  from  Euripides  of  the  canon  of  the 
good,  from  ^schines  of  the, canon-  of  the  just.  Even 
Joshua  is  called  a  canon  hy  Philo,  the  meaning  being 
something  like  our  "ideal  man." 

Specifically  Christian  writers  found  good  use  for  the 
term.  For  example,  Paul  uses  it  in  Galatians  6:  16, 
where  the  "rule"  of  both  Authorized  Version  and  Re» 
vised  Version  is  a  translation  of  "as  many  as  walk  by 
this  canon:'  Again,  in  2  Corinthians  10:  13-16  the 
whole  point  is  the  contrast  between  the  Christian 
canon  and  the  extraneous,  or  foreign,  canon  of  an  im- 
pertinent outsider.  And  in  this  fashion  we  could 
ransack  the  literary  survivals  of  post-apostolic  times 
and  show  how  the  word  canon  came  to  be  used  to  de- 
note "a  concrete  thing"  or  "a  certain  decision,"  as 
Dr.  Gregory  puts  it.  But  the  point  we  are  specially 
interested  in  is  to  know  that  early  in  the  latter  half 
of  the  fourth  century  the  adjective  form  of  the  word 
was  used  to  describe  recognized  or  authorized  reli- 
gious writings. 

This  appears  from  the  fifty-ninth  canon  of  the  Synod 
of  Laodicea  (c.  363)  when  it  was  decreed  that  "private 
psalms  should  not  be  read  in  the  churches,  but  only 
the  canonical  books  of  the  New  and  Old  Testaments." 
Later,  in  the  year  367,  Athanasius,  in  writing  his 
"Festal  Letter,"  declares:  "I  thought  it  well  to  set 
forth  in  order  the  canonized  books."  The  interesting 
thing  is  that  the  list  he  gives  is  exactly  our  twenty- 
seven  New  Testament  writings.  After  giving  this  list 
he  concludes:  "These  are  the  springs  of  salvation,  so 
that  the  thirsty  man  can  fill  himself  with  the  divine 
responses  they  contain;  in  these  alone  does  the  teach- 
ing of  religion  become  a  message  of  good  news."  And 
he  closes  with  a  reference  to  Revelation  22:  18,  19: 
"Let  no   one   add   to   them   or  take   away  aught   from 


19G         The  Story  of  the  New  Testament 

them."  The  significance  of  Athanasius  lies  in  the 
fact  that  he  is  the  first  to  lay  down  our  entire  New- 
Testament  as  alone  canonical;  and  as  this  is  the  very 
list  which  is  sent  forth  a  few  years  later  at  the  Coun- 
cil of  Carthage  (397),  where  the  great  Church  Fa- 
ther Augustine  was  present  and  when  the  question 
of  canonization  was  finally  settled,  it  must  be  taken 
as  the  expression  of  the  mature  judgment  of  the  Cath- 
olic Church,  gradually  forming,  to  be  sure,  but  even- 
tually registering  itself  in  terms  of  complete  confidence. 

It  is  our  task  now  to  fill  in  the  gap  between  the 
widely  separated  documents  of  the  end  of  the  first 
century  and  the  completed  collection  of  the  twenty- 
seven  books  at  the  close  of  the  fourth  century.  How 
did  this  one  come  from  these  many? 

It  is  indeed  a  clear  case  of  E  plurihus  unum.  And 
just  as  in  the  growth  of  our  United  States  into  a  fed- 
erated  union  far  away  from  the  embryonic  stage  of 
separate  colonies,  there  was  a  nucleus  in  the  thirteen 
original  groups;  so  it  is  not  a  fancy  to  conceive  that 
the  nucleus  from  which  the  whole  canon  finally  evolved 
was  the  thirteen  letters  of  Paul;  for  these,  in  truth, 
constitute  the  backbone  of  our  New  Testament. 

It  is  perfectly  possible  that  before  the  close  of  the 
first  century  a  collection  of  these  letters  had  been  made. 
The  strategic  position  of  the  Pauline  Churches,  the 
comprehensiveness  of  Paul's  contribution  to  the  ex' 
plication  and  application  of  the  Christian  message,  and 
especially  his  own  suggestion  that  contiguous  Churches 
should  exchange  letters  (Col.  4:  16),  all  point  to  the 
conclusion  that  the  collection  of  the  letters  of  Paul 
would  be  the  first  experiment  in  gathering  together 
the  documents.  Of  course  we  have  no  proof  of  this; 
but  we  do  know  that,  owing  to  the  cumbersomeness  of 
writing  materials,  coupled  with  the  high  cost  of  lit- 
erary production,  at  first  all  the  books  were  not  put 
together  in  one  volume.  As  we  should  naturally  an- 
ticipate, the  four  Gospels  group  together,  the  thirteen 


The  Rise  of  the  Canon  197 

(or  fourteen)  Epistles  of  Paul,  then  the  so-called  Cath- 
olic Epistles,  where  their  number  is  fixed.  The  Acts 
and,  more  particularly,  the  book  of  Revelation,  frequent- 
ly  form  individual  volumes.  In  fact,  none  of  the  great 
codices  have  the  New  Testament  as  we  have  it.  It 
is  always  in  connection  with  something  else,  either 
before  or  after,  sometimes  doth.  The  Sinaitic  Manu- 
script, for  example,  which  contains  the  entire  New 
Testament,  contains  also  the  Old  Testament,  together 
with  the  Epistle  of  Barnabas  and  part  of  the  Shepherd 
of  Hermas.  The  Alexandrian  has,  in  addition  to  the 
Old  and  New  Testaments,  the  Letter  of  Clement,  a 
fragment  of  so-called  Second  Clement,  and  the  Psalms 
of  Solomon,  though  in  the  table  of  contents  these 
Psalms  are  distinguished  from  Scripture.  As  an  in- 
teresting incident  in  connection  with  this  method  of 
putting  the  writings  in  separate  sections,  we  read  that 
in  a  disputation  which  Augustine  was  holding  with  a 
man  by  the  name  of  Felix,  Augustine  takes  the  codex 
of  the  Gospels  in  his  hands,  reads  something  from  it, 
gives  it  back  and  calls  for  the  book  of  the  Acts  in  order 
to  cite  a  passage  from  it.  If  this  was  true  of  Augus- 
tine's time,  much  more  was  it  true  of  the  earlier  days. 
So  it  is  not  going  too  far  to  .see  in  Paul's  suggestion 
to  the  congregation  at  Colosse  (Col.  4:  16)  the  germ 
that  afterwards  developed  into  a  grouping  of  his  letters, 
and  this  nucleus  (the  original  thirteen)  set  the  exam- 
ple and  led  eventually  to  the  coming  together  in  like 
fashion  of  all  the  others.  .  Just  as  in  individual  Chris- 
tians or  groups  of  Christians  under  the  law  of  Christ, 
comradeship  and  universality  eventually  come  to  a 
consciousness  of  catholicity,  so  individual  Christian 
writings  or  groups  of  writings  pass  through  the  stage 
of  segregation  and  isolation  and  finally  come  inevitably 
to  the  stage  of  cooperation  and  consolidation.  Im- 
pression should  always  have  expression.  The  Catholic 
Church  will  inevitably  evolve  the  Catholic  Scripture. 
We  come  now  to  review  rapidly  the  evidence  of  this 


198         The  Story  of  the  Neic  Testament 

growth  which  the  intervening  centuries  supply.     Three 
stages  may  conveniently  be  noted: 

1.  From  the  end  of  the  first  century  to  the  early 
years  of  the  third  century.  Roughly  speaking,  from 
Clement  of  Rome  to  Clement  of  Alexandria.  This  is 
by  far  the  most  important  period;  during  its  later 
days  we  see  most  of  the  books  attaining  to  the  posi- 
tion they  have  ever  since  held.  It  is  the  period  of  the 
rising  consciousness  of  apostolic  authority. 

2.  The  second  stage  extends  to  the  consolidation  and 
so-called  Christianization  of  the  empire,  or,  roughly 
speaking,  from  Clement  of  Alexandria  to  Constantine. 
This  is  the  age  of  comparison  of  the  lists  held  by  va- 
rious Churches  and  criticism  of  the  claims  of  books 
not  generally  received. 

3.  The  third  stage  brings  us  to  the  consummation 
of  the  canon  by  means  of  conciliar  pronouncement, 
extending  from  Constantine  on  to  the  Council  of  Car- 
thage (397). 

The  first  period  (100-220)  introduces  us  to  some  val- 
uable material  tucked  away  in  the  writings  of  some 
very  famous  men.  At  the  head  stands  Clement  of 
Rome.  In  the  letter  he  wrote  to  the  Church  at  Corinth 
witness  is  borne  to  the  several  types  of  teaching  we 
have  in  the  New  Testament.  As  to  his  idea  of  the 
authority  attaching  to  these  writings,  it  is  perfectly 
clear  that,  while  great  reverence  is  accorded  them,  they 
are  not  yet  put  on  the  plane  of  the  old  Scriptures. 
Their  authority  is  personal  and  spiritual  rather  than 
formal  and  technical.  In  the  writings  of  Ignatius  also 
we  have  the  same  attitude.  Like  Clement  he  puts 
himself  upon  a  much  lower  level  than  the  apostles. 
For  example,  he  says  to  the  Ephesians:  "I  know  who 
I  am  and  to  whom  I  write.  I  am  a  convict  .  .  .  you 
are  associates  in  the  mysteries  of  Paul,  who  was  sanc- 
tified, who  obtained  a  good  report,  who  is  worthy  ol 
all  felicitation."  Polycarp  likewise  indulges  in  the 
same  strain  when  he  declares  to  the  Philippians:   "For 


The  Rise  of  the  Canon  109 

neither  am  I,  nor  is  any  other  like  me,  able  to  follow 
the  wisdom  of  the  blessed  and  glorious  Paul"  (Phil,  3). 
It  is  easy  to  collect  sentences  from  these  subapostolic 
sources  which  show  a  knowledge  of  Romans,  1  and  2 
Corinthians,  Galatians,  Ephesians,  Philippians,  1  and  2 
Timothy,  Hebrews,  James,  1  Peter,  and  1  John.  One 
passage  in  Ignatius  (Philadelp.  5,  see  also  8)  seems 
to  refer  to  a  recognized  collection  of  Christian  writ' 
ings;  but,  for  all  that,  we  must  say  with  Dr.  Gregory 
that  Ignatius  is  still  "amid  the  rolls  of  the  separate 
books." 

It  only  remains  to  mention  in  this  connection  Bar- 
nabas. In  his  letter  (Bar.  4,  last  sentence)  he  quotes 
a  passage — "Many  are  called,  but  few  are  chosen" — with 
the  formula  "as  it  is  written."  As  this  formula  is  the 
standard  way  of  referring  to  Scripture  and  as  these 
words  are  found  in  Matthew  22:  14,  this  is  sometimes 
heralded  as  the  earliest  reference  to  the  New  Testament 
as  Holy  Scripture;  possibly,  however,  the  saying  was 
a  proverb  even  in  the  time  of  Jesus. 

If  this  be  true  we  must  come  down  another  stage 
before  we  get  an  indubitable  reference  which  desig- 
nates as  "Scripture"  any  part  of  our  New  Testament 
and  thus  consciously  places  its  authority  on  a  par  with 
the  Hebrew  canon.  This  passage  is  supplied  by  one  of 
the  earliest  and  greatest  sermons  that  has  survived — 
namely,  the  so-called  Second  Letter  of  Clement  (sec. 
3:  5  and  4:  1,  together  with  several  New  Testament 
quotations  passim). 

But  so-called  Second  Clement  dates  from  far  on  in 
the  second  century,  and  the  attitude  it  assumes  was 
prepared  for  by  the  apologists,  particularly  Justin 
Martyr.  True,  Justin  does  not  apply  the  specific  epi- 
thet "inspired"  to  the  apostolic  writings,  but  he  as- 
scribes  to  them  a  power  apart  from  which  the  Church 
could  not  have  received  the  Christian  revelation.  He 
also  attests  the  fact  of  a  separate  collection  of  writings 
exclusively    Christian    and    makes    the    statement    that 


200         The  Story  of  the  New  Testament 

these  were  read  in  the  public  worship  of  the  Churches 
of  his  day.  This  means  that  these  writings  were  thus 
elevated  to  the  rank  of  Old  Testament  Scriptures  and 
marks  therefore  a  decisive  step.  He  does  not,  of  course, 
refer  to  all  our  books,  nor  does  he  put  all  he  refers 
to  on  the  same  plane.  He  does  not  mention  by  name 
any  of  the  apostles.  While  he  is  acquainted  with  some 
letters  of  Paul,  Hebrews,  Acts,  and  Luke's  Gospel,  he 
does  not  put  these  on  the  plane  of  "The  Gospel." 

The  positive  contributions  of  Justin  are  supplement- 
ed by  the  negative  evidence  supplied  by  his  contem- 
porary, Marcion,  who  was  V enfant  terrible  of  the  early 
Church.  This  heretic  is  for  our  purpose  the  most  im- 
portant man  between  Paul  and  Origen.  He  had  his 
own  canon.  But  this  proves  much;  with  him  the  sword 
was  mightier  than  the  pen,  and  so  he  slashed  off  what 
he  deemed  excrescences  on  the  larger  list  generally 
accepted.  He  is  also  indirect  witness  to  two  other 
things — namely,  that  the  carion  was  not  absolutely  de- 
termined and  that  the  hold  the  Apostolic  Age  had  on 
the  Church  was  a  tenacious  one,  since  despite  this 
strong  man  and  his  movement  no  great  loss  was  even- 
tually sustained  by  the  Church  in  the  matter  of  its 
early  writings. 

The  close  of  the  second  century  and  the  first  quarter 
of  the  third  register  another  great  advance.  In  this 
period  the  testimonies  came  from  the  east  and  the 
west,  the  north  and  the  south.  This  is  the  era  of 
extensive  quotation,  with  all  that  that  implies,  the 
era  when  we  leave  the  dim  uncertainty  of  the  twilight 
and  come  under  the  light  and  leading  of  such  scholars 
as  Irenseus,  Clement  of  Alexandria,  Tertullian,  and 
greatest  of  all,  Origen.  This  is  the  time  of  Tatian's 
Diatessaron,  the  first  attempt  at  a  harmony  of  the 
Gospels.  Irenaeus,  bishop  of  Lyons,  first  meets  us. 
He  is  facile  princei)s,  the  primal  wholesale  quoter  of 
anything  like  our  entire  New  Testament.  From  the 
East  the  voice  of  Clement,  the  greatest  scholar  of  that 


The  Rise  of  the  Canon  201 

section,  comes  to  tell  us  the  difference  between  the 
canonical  and  the  uncanonical  Gospels;  as  when  he 
says  (Strom.  3:  13):  "We  do  not  find  this  in  the  four 
Gospels  that  have  been  handed  down  to  us,  but  in  that 
according  to  the  Egyptians." 

From  Carthage~in  North  Africa  this  testimony  comes 
in  the  terse  sentences  of  Tertullian,  the  great  in- 
ventor of  theological  terminology,  who  confines  him- 
self almost  exclusively  to  the  four  Gospels  ks  we  know 
them;  while  -in  the  epistolary  section  he  revels  in 
the  thought  that  the  apostles  enjoyed  the  same  spirit 
of  inspiration  that  distinguishes  Moses  and  the  prophets. 

Origen,  the  most  learned  Biblical  student  of  the  an- 
cient world,  closes  this  illustrious  quarternion.  He  re- 
fers to  the  "four  Gospels  which  alone  are  not  spoken 
against  in  the  Church  of  God." 

From  these  four  fathers  we  can  make  a  conspectus 
of  the  authoritative  Scriptures  of  the  New  Testament 
as  held  by  the  Church  in  such  widely  separated  areas 
as  Italy,  Gaul,  Africa,  and  Egypt.  This  would  include 
all  the  twenty-seven  we  now  accept,  with  the  exception 
of  James  and  2  Peter  and  possibly  the  very  shortest 
writings,  such  as  2  and  3  John.  We  must  say,  how- 
ever, that  in  the  case  of  the  disputed  books  Origen 
represents  an  advance,  though  he  does  not  speak  un- 
qualifiedly. 

It  took  the  experiences  of  the  Diocletian  persecution 
and  the  ensuing  edicts  of  councils  to  register  anything 
like  uniformity  here.  As  we  have  rioted  already, 
Athanasius  was  the  first  to  lay  down  our  Canon  as 
it  now  stands.  But  this  needed  conciliar  corrobora- 
tion. This  was  secured  partially  at  the  Council  of 
Laodicea  (363),  where  only  the  Apocalypse  fails  to 
pass  muster.  The  Council  at  Carthage  (397),  however, 
made  up  for  this  lack  when  the  final  examination  of 
all  our  twenty-seven  was  successfully  passed;  and,  while 
all  the  applicants  for  admission  into  the  Christian 
Canon  did  not  make  a  grade  of  one  hundred  per  cent. 


202:         The  Story  of  the  New  Testament 

from  that  time  on  the  vast  proportion  of  the  Christians 
of  the  world  have  had  a  uniform  collection  of  apostolic 
writings  lifted  to  the  plane  of  Canonical  Scriptures. 

And  now  a  final  word  in  retrospect.  Scattered,  in- 
deed, these  writings  were  in  their  original  destination 
to  various  groups  and  individuals.  As  far  apart  as 
the  poles,  we  may  say;  yet  how  close  do  they  finally 
come  together  in  our  New  Testament!  It  is  indeed  a 
marvelous  tnarshaling  of  hitherto  miscellaneous  manu- 
scripts. 

Palestine  is  four  hundred  leagues  from  Rome,  yet 
the  Marcan  Gospel  and  that  of  Matthew  are  next  door 
neighbors.  Luke,  directed  presumably  to  Antioch, 
stands  side  by  side  with  John,  sent  to  the  Ephesian 
region  five  hundred  miles  away.  Nothing  can  close 
the  gap  between  Ephesus  and  Rome,  a  thousand 
miles,  save  what  is  recorded  in  the  Book  of  Acts;  i.e., 
what  the  Spirit  of  Jesus  accomplished  through  the 
lives  of  his  disciples.  Romans  and  Corinthians  leap 
the  "stormy  Adriatic"  and  clasp  hands  in  the  unity  of 
Christian  faith  and  practice.  Galatians  comes  forth 
from  the  rural  regions  round  about  Lystra  and  Iconium 
and  unites  with  the  majestic  Encyclical  Paul  sent  to 
the  metropolis  of  Asia  Minor.  Philippians,  a  gracious 
and  grateful  letter  of  thanks  sent  to  the  first  Church 
the  apostle  founded  on  European  soil,  couples  up  with 
Colossians,  one  of  the  profoundest  deliverances  of  his 
mind  and  heart  and  directed  to  a  congregation  he  had 
never  seen.  1  and  2  Thessalonians  come  over  from 
Macedonia  to  the  help  of  1  and  2  Timothy  in  Asia 
Minor  to  illustrate  the  great  principles  and  problems 
and  perils  of  a  missionary  Christianity.  Even  upon  the 
personal  treasures  of  Titus  and  Philemon  the  Church 
of  later  times  lays  tribute,  and  Colosse  and  Crete  for- 
get the  intervening  barrier  of  the  Mediterranean  and 
sit  down  side  by  side  in  the  noble  family  of  the  great 
apostle  to  the  Gentiles. 

As  for  the  others,  Hebrews  comes  presumably  from 


The  Rise  of  the  Canon  20:^» 

Palestine,  James  from  anywhere  on  the  wide  horizon 
of  the  Dispersion;  yet  the  disparateness  of  their  des- 
tinations does  not  divide  them  in  the  great  brotherhood 
of  the  documents.  Cappadocia,  Bithynia,  and  far-away 
Pontus  contribute  the  correspondence  of  Peter;  Ephe- 
sus  sends  the  letters  of  her  beloved  John;  Jude,  like  a 
blazing  comet,  comes  we  know  not  whence;  while  the 
seven  Churches  of  Asia  Minor  send  the  weird  but 
thrilling  writing  that  completes  the  canonical  collec- 
tion of  the  Christian  Church, 

Just  as  to-day  we  may  see  a  great  electric  magnet^ 
sweep  over  what  seems  to  be  a  rubbish  heap  and  all 
at  once  the  whole  springs  into  activity,  as  steel  and  iron 
long  hidden  from  the  eye  leap  through  the  debris  at 
the  call  of  the  master  spirit  of  magnetism,  so  during 
the  period  we  are  now  glancing  at  the  Spirit  of  Jesus, 
the  Master  Spirit,  seems  to  be  brooding  over  the  Church- 
es throughout  the  length  and  breadth  of  the  Graeco- 
Roman  world,  and,  as  it  hovers  here  and  there,  in  re- 
sponse to  the  call  of  human  need  and  divine  demand 
these  precious  treasures  of  the  past  come  forth  from 
their  hiding  places  to  hearten  the  souls  and  brighten 
the  faith  of  all  the  coming  years. 


SOME  HELPFUL  BOOKS 

I.  Inteoductions 

Jiilicher. — Comprehensive  yet  concise.  Valuable  espe- 
cially for  analyses  and  summaries.  Influence  of  this 
great  scholar  may  be  seen  on  pages  17-18  and  25-26  of 
this  volume.    Very  suggestive  on  the  Canon. 

Moffat. — Most  elaborate  and  critical  in  the  extreme. 
*  Can  best  be  read  in  connection  with  Ramsay's  running 
review  entitled  "The  First  Christian  Century." 

Wei^s  (Bema7'd). — Two  volumes  of  able  discussion. 
Constructive  and  to  a  great  degree  conservative. 

Salman. — Conservative.  Has  merit  in  its  criticism 
of  the  School  of  Baur. 

For  those  who  do  not  have  access  to  these  more  am- 
bitious works  these  smaller  volumes  are  suggestive: 

Bacon.— Small  but  thorough.    Rather  radical. 

Peake. — Concise,  critical,  and  constructive. 

Dods. — A  good  conservative  statement. 

II.  History  of  the  Apostolic  Age 

For  those  who  desire  a  brief  statement  along  tradi- 
tional lines: 

Purves'  "History  of  the  Apostolic  Age"  is  a  handy 
volume. 

Bartlett  and  McGiffert  are  useful  for  more  advanced 
readers. 

III.  Commentaries 

These  are  too  numerous  to  mention  in  detail.  Special 
mention  should  be  made  of  Findlay,  however,  for  the 
idea  underlying  the  discussion  on  pp.  131-133,  and  Law's 
"Lectures  on  1  John"  has  also  proved  most  suggestive 
in  supplying  the  ground  for  the  discussion  of  that  let- 
ter. 

(204) 


ISomG  Helpful  Boohn  205 

IV.  Hasting's  Bible  Dictionary 

This  great  work  is  of  superlative  value  at  all  times. 
In  this  book  Bruce's  article  on  Hebrews  has  been  large- 
ly followed  on  pages  141-143. 

V.  On  the  Canon 

A  comprehensive  account  is  furnished  by  Westcott;  a 
briefer  and  more  modern  by  Souter.  Both  have  very 
valuable  appendices,  exhibiting  lists,  and  concilior  find- 
ings. 

Source  books  in  connection  with  the  study  of  Canon 
are: 

CTiarteris. — ''Canonicity,"  and  the  modern  and  criti« 
cal  work  now  being  edited  by  the  Oxford  Society  of  His- 
torical  Theology  under  the  title,  "The  New  Testament  in 
the  Apostolic  Fathers." 

VI.  General 

Among  the  more  general  volumes  the  advanced  stu- 
dent may  consult  with  great  profit: 

Milligan. — "The  New  Testament  Documents." 
Jones. — "The  New  Testament  in  the  Twentieth  Cen- 
tury." 


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